CNN’s town hall with twice-impeached, criminally indicted, convicted sexual abuser Donald Trump was a glorified campaign rally, and the former president is already capitalizing on it.
Trump’s presidential campaign unveiled a new T-shirt for sale to mark the occasion, tweeting that the town hall was “so masterful that many are now saying CNN should be renamed TNN—the Trump News Network.
And the merch is objectively bad: It’s a white shirt featuring a picture of Trump wearing pixelated meme sunglasses, above the words “This is TNN.”
This isn’t Trump’s first foray into bizarre merch. Remember the NFTs? At least President Joe Biden understands what good meme merch should look like.
The bigger problem, of course, is that CNN gave Trump its platform in the first place. It was a blatant grab for viewers and buzz, which didn’t even work. An average of just 3.1 million viewers tuned in to the town hall, a mere sliver of the eyeballs Trump could attract during his time in office.
All the town hall did was legitimize Trump as a candidate. He spent the entire time spouting lies, misogynistic attacks, election conspiracy theories, and insults at anyone who tried to fact-check him. Countless people in the news media, including CNN employees, have slammed the town hall and the network for hosting it.
CNN went so far as to try to make the event as easy as possible for Trump. Before the town hall, the network reportedly told the audience, “Please do not boo, please be respectful.” They were allowed to applaud, though. Aside from this having big “Please clap” energy, it also provided positive reinforcement to everything Trump said, when his words really should have been met with fact-checks and horrified silence.
And in the end, all CNN has to show for it is egg on its proverbial face.
