It was a typical Donald Trump story: In his first TV interview since his impeachment in New York, the former US President had claimed on the ultra-conservative Fox News on Tuesday that the people in Manhattan District Court when he was arrested in the past had cried for a week.
“When I went into the courthouse, which is also a prison in a way, they put me on a registration list and I’ll tell you, people were crying, people who work there, who work there professionally,” Trump said right-wing populist star moderator Tucker Carlson his version of the arrest procedure.
“They have no problem catching murderers and they see everyone,” Trump said. “It’s a tough, tough place. And they cried. They actually cried. They said, ‘I’m sorry.'” People in the courtroom also said, “2024, sir, 2024,” the applicant claimed for the Republican presidential nomination next year. “Tears welled up in their eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Trump may not have seen anything like this this time either, but simply invented it. At least that’s what Yahoo News reports, citing a law enforcement source familiar with the details. The 76-year-old’s tear story was “absolute nonsense” and had nothing to do with what happened that day, the unnamed person told the news site.
“Zero,” the source replied when asked how much truth there was to Trump’s melodramatic statements. “There were no people crying. There were zero people saying ‘I’m sorry'”.
Trump only dealt with a handful of prosecutors in court, aside from his attorneys and Secret Service agents, the source said. Otherwise, he hardly came into contact with other people during his arrest and indictment. During the trial, the ex-president said little, as did District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s representatives, who accompanied him throughout the process.
The only minor disruption occurred when Trump’s fingers were too dry to take impressions, the eyewitness said. Bragg employees then provided him with lotion.
Images of Trump and the people surrounding him from the aisles and the hall of the district court in Lower Manhattan reinforce the doubts about the ex-president’s portrayal. The recordings only show serious, sometimes bored-looking faces. There are no tears or people who seem close to crying.
A look into the past also shows that Trump’s touching story was probably more of a fairy tale. Comparable anecdotes – preferably from “tough guys” who were overwhelmed by meeting him despite not crying as babies themselves – are part of the Republican’s standard repertoire. In June 2019, for example, during a renewable energy summit about the signing of a deregulation law, the then-president claimed: “I had builders, farmers and ranchers behind me, and many of them have never cried in their lives, even when they were born – and they cried.”
However, footage of the law signing in the White House in February 2017 shows that none of those present shed a single tear behind Trump. And Trump did not reveal how the ex-president wants to know whether the builders, farmers and ranchers cried when they were born.
In 2018, the then-president described an alleged encounter with a man in the state of South Dakota: “He was a strong, tough guy, and he was crying. He said, ‘Mr. President, thank you for saving America’. I’m telling you, this man was strong. I don’t think he cried when he was a baby.”
And in early 2019, Trump reported of a man who tearfully begged him to reduce regulations: “I don’t think he cried in his life and I don’t think he cried when he was a baby,” said the Republican. “He was crying. He said, ‘Sir, give me back my life and property.'”
Trump himself, on the other hand, says he wasn’t quite as callous when he was still in a diaper, but now apparently keeps a cool head despite all the tears around him. During his 2015 campaign, the then-presidential candidate declared, “The last time I cried was when I was a baby.”
Quellen: Yahoo News, Fox News, BBC, “Huffington Post”, “The Hill”, C-Span
