Donald Trump Jr. Gives Interview to Fringe Right-Wing Network That Traffics in End-Times Reporting

Can Donald Trump Jr. not afford a publicist to screen his interview requests? Because hiring one might be a good idea before he sits down with a fringe network full of conspiracy theorists again.

The network was actually TruNews, a right-wing fundamentalist Christian network that dabbles heavily in conspiracy theories. As Right-Wing Watch notes, it spent much of the Obama years accusing Barack Obama of being “literally demon-possessed” and running “a modern-day Nazi regime.” The founder, Rick Wiles, claimed the Las Vegas massacre in the fall of 2017, in which 58 people were shot to death, was carried out by a “top-secret death squad” that is controlled by a “gay/lesbian Nazi regime” world government.

The interview happened at the president’s Thursday night rally in Michigan. When TruNews posted the footage on its YouTube page, it spliced in footage of Trump Jr. giving an interview to Sean Hannity that night, in which he repeated many of the usual right-wing talking points about the Russia investigation. He called it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” and accused Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and “93 percent of the mainstream media” of being culpable for it.

He also claimed his father has fought hard against “the Deep State,” which is in itself a goofy label that posits a secret government cabal doing all it can to stop the president.

By splicing the Fox footage in with its own (and putting a graphic over the Fox News microphone Trump Jr. was holding during the Hannity interview), TruNews gave the illusion that the president’s son was talking to them, giving them credibility as a serious conservative news outlet. It also performed the neat trick of tying TruNews closer to the mainstream of the Republican Party. See, the fringe network dedicated to reporting on events leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ told its viewers, the most powerful people in the country are with us and our eschatological world view.

Late Friday, a spokesman for Trump Jr. released a statement addressing the matter. But again, not getting caught in this position is why you have a good publicist along with you in the first place:

Don Jr’s statement re: his appearance last night on an antisemitic conspiracy network run by a guy who thinks Trump is “owned by the Jews” pic.twitter.com/XPH2Zc7txW

— Caleb Ecarma (@calebecarma) March 29, 2019