Donald Trump has taken part in his first interview with an international broadcaster since leaving the White House in January 2020 and not many people would have put money on it being with the much-maligned GB News.
Of course, this all makes sense when you realise that he was talking to his friend Nigel Farage who has a primetime show on the news channel. The former UKIP leader spoke to Trump at his Mar-A-Largo complex in Florida. "This interview will not disappoint you, no holds barred," promised Farage.
Perhaps the 'no holds barred' description was a reference to the garish backdrop that the interview was conducted in which looked like an explosion at the Faberge egg factory.
Regardless, Farage spoke to Trump for the best part of an hour and tried to crowbar as many opinions that he could out of the former president but it's fair to say that Trump wasn't exactly on stunning form as we were treated to some old rigged election and anti-Democrat rhetoric, as well as a Prince Harry and Meghan Markle segue, that he has been churning out for more than a year now.
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Anyway, it's always fun to see what sort of word salad Trump can produce so here are some of the most eyebrow-raising quotes from the interview.
‘The withdrawal from Afghanistan I think was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country’
— GB News (@GBNEWS) December 1, 2021
Donald Trump hits out at the decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/tVGydUZyEo
"I didn't know I was so quiet. That's news to me. Sometimes I wanna say them and sometimes I feel its not appropriate to say. We had a great election. It was a rigged election. We got more votes than any sitting president. I think we've said a lot about and certainly, there is a lot to talk about - the withdrawal from Afghanistan I think was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country."
Trump pushes another rigged election conspiracy before calling the withdrawal of Afghanistan 'the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country' - perhaps forgetting the four years of his presidency.
‘I guess it was probably enforced because they’re down, and there’s no excitement on Twitter anymore’
— GB News (@GBNEWS) December 1, 2021
Donald Trump hits out at Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who announced his resignation from the platform. pic.twitter.com/zaDKn0Krda
"He's leaving. It's probably enforced. Also, there's no excitement on Twitter anymore as I understand. Conservative people are leaving and being cancelled. We used to get tremendous interaction with liberals but now they say it's a very boring place to be."
In all fairness, Trump is right here as there are definitely fewer memes to be made about his bonkers tweets.
The pair attempt to dig further into election fraud with Farage claiming that in the UK "Mass postal voting leads to the wrong results. It's a bad system."
Trump echoes this by saying: "Every study comes out; 'you can't do it through the mail, you cant do it.' These mail-in ballots are a disaster. An open invitation to cheat."
‘Election Day, to me, was the insurrection, the events on January 6th were a protest’
— GB News (@GBNEWS) December 1, 2021
Donald Trump responds to claims that he was to blame for the events at Capitol Hill on 6th January. pic.twitter.com/9k18XMlHwy
"I think it was the largest crowd I've ever spoken to. The insurrection took place on November 3rd. That was insurrection day and before and after. January 6th was a protest. I have never spoken in front of a crowd that size, no one ever mentions that. Unfortunately, some bad things happened but the other side had some bad things happen and I offered 10,000 national guardsmen and the military because I knew the crowd was going to be massive because I understood the anger over the election. Pelosi and Capitol Hill turned it down. We would have had tremendous security. The real insurrection took place on election day."
Farage does attempt to get something resembling a confession out of Trump about the shocking events of 6th January but Trump instead refuses to condemn his supporters who stormed the Capitol building, killing five people and boldly claims that the actual insurrection was on election day.
"It started off with 'pigs in a blanket.' Fry 'em like bacon. That was about our police our great police and all of sudden this become mainstream? I don't think so. Then you have Antifa. Very bad. They had Antifa in that rally. They had a lot of people leading others on January 6th. It's pretty incredible that nothing happened to them but the other - this has been going on for many years. They are about politics but their original founding message was 'kill the police'. When that becomes mainstream - not good."
Trump says some pretty alarming things about the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement and spreads conspiracies about Antifa somehow instigating the riot.
"I think wind is ridiculous. I think wind is a horrible thing for Scotland because I own great properties in Scotland and Ireland and I look at these great fields with these horrible windmills. I guess windmills is a nice term - turbines - because they are starting to rust. Once they are there for a few years they start to rust and wear out and look terrible. In the UK, they are all over the place. I think 'what a shame they've done.' You know environmentalists like this stuff - I think they hate the world."
Rolling back the years, Trump relaunches his attack on wind and the centuries-old technology of windmills.
"I think it's a shame. In Aberdeen, they built this ugly windfarm in the ocean. It's so disgusting to look at. I built one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world and now you look, these things are 20, 30 stories tall, they are monsters, they are far out but they are right on top of you. I think Ireland has been tougher about it. Wind is the most expensive form of energy and they kill all the birds and every 10 years you have to replace them but they just let them rot. Boris is wrong. If he's going heavy into wind, he's making a big mistake."
Monsters that kill birds - that's definitely a new description for windmills, can't see it catching on though.
"I always get along with him [Boris Johnson]. He's gone a little on the liberal side."
Boris Johnson - liberal??? We can hear GB News viewers and Brexiteers frothing at the mouth already.
"I think she [The Queen] is a great woman. I was supposed to spend half an hour, I ended up being there for much more than an hour and people said 'that's so rude' but she liked it and I liked it. I'm not going to be rude. We had a great time together. We then had an evening the likes of which you rarely see. She was laughing and smiling, we got along great. And to think she's done this for more than 70 years and she's never had a scandal about herself. An incredible woman."
Trump denies that he was rude when he met the Queen in 2018, despite breaking Royal protocol twice.
Donald Trump says it’s ‘not appropriate of Meghan to use her royal title’
— GB News (@GBNEWS) December 1, 2021
Donald Trump says it’s ‘very inappropriate’ for Meghan to get involved US politics. pic.twitter.com/BuNGPMoLye
"I'm not a fan of hers [Meghan Markle]. I wasn't from day one. I think Harry has been used horribly. I think one day he will regret it. You know people say I'm very good at the prediction business and I think he will regret it. He probably does already but I'm not a fan of hers. I think she is very disrespectful to the Queen. I think she is very disrespectful to the Royal Family and maybe most importantly to the Queen. I never got it. I see her, I listen to her she's trying to do things that I think are inappropriate. I think Harry has been used horribly, it has ruined his reputation with his family and it's really, really - I think it has hurt the Queen."
Farage needlessly turns the conversation to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's recent move to the United States and the Duchess of Sussex getting more involved in politics. However, the oddest line from this has to be the 'predictions business' which Trump is apparently really good at???
‘Let me solve our problem first!’
— GB News (@GBNEWS) December 1, 2021
Donald Trump refuses to be drawn in on the UK migrant crisis, instead focussing on issues surrounding the US border. pic.twitter.com/j4hKDHsz65
Amusingly Trump backhands Farage's attempt to comment on the migrant crisis in the English Channel by telling him "Let me solve our problem first" which he adds is now "worse than it ever was in the history of our country."
"Two fake impeachments, Russia, Russia, Russia. A total hoax and everybody knows it and they should take away the Pulitzer prizes from writers who, knowingly in many cases, were writing about fiction."
Farage touches on the multitude of scandals that rocked Trump's administration which Trump still seems to think were fake.
"I love our country. I brought our country to a level it's never seen before. Then Covid came in and I brought it back up with a vaccine that everyone's using. Saved tens of millions of people around the world in less than nine months. It was supposed to take 12 years. They were expecting it to take 12 years. We've done an amazing job. If you love the country, you have no choice. It's not a question - this is a wonderful, beautiful life but I like that too because I was helping people. That's why I did it and I think you'll be happy in the future too."
Mercifully Farage brings the interview to an end with Trump hinting that he might run for president again in 2024. And with that Trump's debut on GB News was in the books.
Folks, Frost/Nixon this was not. More like Rod Hull and Michael Parkinson...
