Why Does Trump Suddenly Love the CNN Debate Moderators?

Donald Trump has been flying high since his first matchup with President Joe Biden last month. In the weeks since, the 78-year-old has elevated calls for show trials and all-out revenge against his political rivals, including Biden, and hasn’t shied away from sycophantic fans likening his candidacy to divine ordainment. But now, Trump has done something that had been previously thought unconscionable for the former president: He complimented CNN.

“I do have to say, the CNN, Jake [Tapper] and Dana [Bash], were really, they were pretty good,” Trump told Fox News Monday night. “I thought they were fair. I thought they were fair, in the questions I thought from him to me.”

“Jake and Dana were really pretty good” — Trump on Hannity praises the CNN debate moderators pic.twitter.com/KlzV0Bq1K0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 9, 2024

Ahead of the debate, Trump and his team repeatedly accused Tapper and Bash of being biased against him. But after the debate, Tapper and Bash came under heavy fire for letting Trump lie pretty much the entire time. He spewed falsehoods and misinformation, and neither the moderators nor Biden made any effort to fact-check him.

In the same Fox interview, Trump suggested that a terror attack was imminent and “100 percent certain” and that he intends to “have the largest deportation in our history” if elected because migrants are “poisoning the country.” He also claimed that Jimmy Carter—the 99-year-old former president currently in hospice—is “the happiest guy around” since Biden’s disastrous performance in the first debate.

Against the background of debate reactions, Trump has been leveraging his social media accounts to say what he really thinks. Over the last few days, Trump has shared an image of himself and Melania Trump at the White House, superimposed with the QAnon catchphrase, “Where We Go One We Go All.” He also used his social media platform to amplify an attack against billionaire financier George Soros and his family, vaguely accusing the investor and his connections of being “treasonous traitors.”

On top of all that, he shared an image of several prominent lawmakers that he believed should be headed to prison instead of his far-right ally Steve Bannon, who began his federal sentence last week for defying a congressional subpoena. Those politicians include former Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who all committed the egregious crime—according to Trump—of hiding “the January 6 footage.”