A day after skipping the first Republican presidential debate, former President Donald Trump declared himself the winner, saying his interview with Tucker Carlson on X attracted more than 100 million views.
The 45-minute interview premiered on X, formerly Twitter, five minutes before eight of Mr. Trump’s Republican opponents began debating their policies live on Fox News from a stage in Milwaukee. Mr. Trump did not attend, citing his double-digit lead over all other GOP candidates, and tried to upstage the competition with his X interview.
Posted on Mr. Carlson’s handle, the interview earned nearly 170 million views, although the number of individuals in that total isn’t clear. According to X, anyone who is logged on to the platform and views an X post counts as a view. The interview also logged 168,000 reposts and over 560,000 likes.
Fox News has not released ratings for Wednesday’s two-hour debate. In 2016, 24 million people tuned in to Fox for the first Republican debate.
It’s not clear whether views on X can be compared directly with Nielsen ratings that measure the number of people who tune in to parts or all the debate.
No matter how the views were tabulated, Trump’s team declared victory.
“President Trump won this evening’s Republican debate in dominating fashion,” Trump campaign senior adviser Susie Wiles said in a news release. “More people watched President Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson than the rest of the field on the debate stage combined.”
Mr. Trump told Mr. Carlson he didn’t participate in the debate because he is “leading by 50 and 60 points” in the polls and didn’t want to be “harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president.”
Mr. Trump has suggested he’ll also skip future primary debates due to his sizable lead.
According to RealClearPolitics polling averages, Mr. Trump is beating his leading opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 40 points nationally and by 27 points in Iowa, which holds its caucuses Jan. 15. Mr. Trump leads Mr. DeSantis by 30 points in New Hampshire, which holds the nation’s first primary in February.
Ms. Wiles said Mr. Trump’s interview on X showcased his experience and readiness to take on President Biden.
“Tonight, voters saw a clear contrast between President Trump engaging in a thoughtful policy discussion about what his second term will look like versus 90-second canned sound bites and platitudes from the debate stage,” Ms. Wiles said.
Mr. Carlson, a former Fox News host, and Mr. Trump talked about an array of issues, including the jailhouse death of convicted sex offender and Democratic donor Jeffrey Epstein as well as government regulations that have mandated low-flow shower heads and electric cars.
Mr. Trump also discussed the criminal charges he’s facing in four cases, two by Democrat prosecutors. Mr. Carlson asked him if he believed Democrats wanted him dead.
“Are you worried that they’re going to try and kill you? Mr. Carlson asked him. “Why wouldn’t they try and kill you? Honestly.”
Mr. Trump responded by saying that those against him are “savage animals” who are “sick, really sick.”
They talked about Mr. Biden’s physical and mental state, and Mr. Trump, 77, described him as “the worst president in the history of our country.” He said he doesn’t think Mr. Biden, 80, is going to make it to the November 2024 election.
Mr. Biden was criticized for taking another beach vacation following the devastating fire in Maui that left more than 100 people dead and hundreds more missing. Mr. Trump said the sitting president should be working harder to fix the country’s problems and should stop U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine.
“The beach doesn’t represent what the president is supposed to be doing. You’re supposed to be working, you’re supposed to be getting us out of that horrible, horrible war that we’re very much involved in with Russia and Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said. “You could do that very easily. I don’t believe he could do it because he’s just incompetent, but that’s a war that should end immediately.”
Mr. Trump shared that he thought the 2020 election was rigged and said that Democrats would try to cheat to win the election in 2024.
“They have to cheat because their policies are so bad that if they didn’t cheat they couldn’t get elected,” he said. “Who wants open borders, who wants high taxes, who wants high interest rates, who wants to not be able to use a gas stove or have to drive an electric car?”
He said the Democrats would try to steal the election from him again.
“Not only me,” he said. “If somebody else got in, other than me, they’ll go at him just as viciously as they did me.”
Mr. Trump brushed off the threat of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he called “DeSanctus,” as “gonzo” and “gone.”
Mr. Carlson asked Mr. Trump what his top priority would be if he wins in 2024. Mr. Trump responded with “border,” adding that he would send the “criminals” who were allowed in the U.S. back to their countries.
Mr. Biden’s open border policies are central to his low approval ratings. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have poured into America since Mr. Biden took office and have overwhelmed cities that don’t have the capacity to provide housing and resources for them.
When asked by Mr. Carlson if he thought the country is heading toward a civil war, Mr. Trump brought up the passion and love he sees, adding that Jan. 6, 2021, was “an interesting day.”
Masses of Trump followers protested at the Capitol that day over what they saw as a rigged 2020 election. Before that was a rally several blocks away headlined by Mr. Trump.
“There was love in that crowd, there was love and unity,” he told Mr. Carlson. “I have never seen such spirit and such passion and such love, and I’ve also never seen simultaneously and from the same people such hatred of what they’ve done to our country.”
