Former US President Donald Trump has given the arch-conservative TV station Fox News the first television interview since his indictment in New York. During an appearance on the Tonight Show by right-wing populist star presenter Tucker Carlson, Trump also described the arrest procedure last Tuesday – and did not skimp on drama.

“They were incredible,” the 76-year-old praised the staff of the New York County Supreme Court, as New York State calls the court in Manhattan, although it is not a Supreme Court. “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.”

“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,” Trump claimed. “Tears ran into their eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Trump announced at Tucker Carlson not for the first time that people burst into tears in his presence. In fact, such anecdotes are part of his standard repertoire and usually involve “tough guys” who were overwhelmed by meeting him, despite not crying even as babies. 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.

But that doesn’t stop him from telling such anecdotes again and again. In 2018, Trump 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 say You, that 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: Fox News, BBC, “Huffington Post”, “The Hill”, C-Span