Former president Donald Trump is attempting to change the way in which he handles media networks. Next week he has a planned town hall with CNN. This is going to be the first time that he is will be sitting down with a major network that is not Fox News in over two years.
The last time Trump appeared on a different network was during a “60 Minutes” interview in late October 2020 – an interview that he ended up storming out of. Still, his aides have claimed that this situation is not going to be anything like last time and that the former president was attempting to rebuild his relationship with the network after years of slamming them.
CNN could provide large ratings for Trump, but the network also has to maintain a careful balance if it wants to avoid being criticized for giving too much of a platform to Trump. CNN and MSNBC have both been slammed in the past for their coverage of Trump during the 2016 GOP primary race.
Trump, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, seems to believe that appearing on all the major networks is going to give him a larger platform as well as the ability to have more control over the news cycle. He could also potentially win back some of the mainstream respect that he might have lost following the 2020 presidential election which led to him making false claims about the election being stolen and ultimately resulting in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
