Politics

Review: Trump and Piers: The Interview

28 January 2018

By Lauren E. White

It goes without saying that President Donald Trump is one of the most controversial figures in the world at the moment. Piers Morgan is also one of the most controversial figures in Britain too. So ITV must have thought it would be a good idea to put them together in an interview. This was no ordinary interview, though, it was President Trump’s first international interview since his inauguration in January of last year. In it, Morgan quizzes Trump on a range of issues, though it wouldn’t be fair to say he gave him a good grilling.

The beginning of the interview was just a little bit cringe-worthy. It featured Trump saying Piers was the “smartest” person on Celebrity Apprentice in the US, the reality show on which Trump played the equivalent of Alan Sugar on the UK version. Then there were odd laughs peppered throughout the interview delivered by Morgan; ones that no doubt served the ego of Trump and made the former editor of The Mirror come across as annoying and not very impartial. It would be too much to expect this of Morgan when it comes to Trump, though, as he does really want to be seen as a close friend of the President. Well, a man can dream…

Related image

Among many of the claims Trump made in Part One of the interview, he said that his tax reforms were “bigger than the Reagan bill”, which referred to Ronald Reagan’s radical tax reforms when he came to power in the ’80s. Reagan slashed income tax and the top tax band by a percentage that is still yet to be beaten. So, in Trump’s own words, his claims are fake news. Fake news, by the way, is why Trump uses Twitter – a mode of communication that has gotten him into hot water in the past to say the very least. According to him, if it weren’t for Twitter, he couldn’t “defend” himself.

Morgan went on to put the case to Trump that he might have vaguely said and done things regarding women that are wrong. He failed to bring up “grab ’em by the p*ssy” and be specific. It was as though the concept of women and Trump was just a small issue that needed to be done for the formality of it all. Morgan did a better job of speaking about Arsenal, his beloved football club, to Trump at the end of the interview than making the President face up to his misogyny. All we got was Trump saying he is not a feminist (which we all knew) and that being a feminist was “going too far”. Wow, that equality thing is a lot to ask for.

Related image
Britain First

Then there was a lot about Britain and Trump’s Twitter retweets of the racist group Britain First, which he said he had “no knowledge” of at the time. Morgan has been going around pronouncing he got an apology out of Trump for this, but the President said he “would certainly apologise if you’d like me to”. And that was it. POTUS said he has “tremendous respect” for Theresa May, but that he would be negotiating Brexit in a very different way. Well, he isn’t the only one, is he? Just ask Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Image result for gun control

On gun control in the US, Trump basically said that the best way to fight guns was with more guns because “you need it [a gun] for security”; on climate change, the President of the United States was sceptical and refused to say yes or no to whether he believes in climate change or not, stating that he is a “believer in clean air and clean water”. It was all a bit disappointing really, and Piers Morgan was too doe-eyed to really grill Trump and push him to his limit as an interviewee, something he’s all too good at doing to anyone who’s gender fluid or vegan on Good Morning Britain.

The interview was too nice, too soft and too predictable. We want less of the Trump-Morgan love affair and more of the real news. Is that too much to ask?

Like this article? Please share!