Phil Donahue has never been known to be much of a conservative, politically speaking. But on Sunday’s “Reliable Sources,” he bestowed a compliment on President Trump – likening him to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.
The TV icon told CNN’s Brian Stelter that if “The Phil Donahue Show” was still on the air, he’d be first in line to interview Trump.
“It’s counter-intuitive not to,” Donahue said. “As you know, the coin of our realm is the size of our audience. If we don’t draw a crowd, next week we will be parking cars. And Trump draws a crowd.”
Donahue added, “He’s Elvis!”
Donahue is also impressed by Trump’s appearances across the country, calling them, “a brilliant management of a campaign that continues.”
“He gets on the airplane, a big old airplane, flies anywhere in this country and four cars meet him, all black limousines. He goes to the nearest, largest venue in that area and sells out. Not an empty seat. Walks in and now they’re producing these — this is fascinating me — the other night at his rally, there were four or five really cute white girls. There are black people at those rallies, but you got to look for them.”
He continued, “It’s happening more and more. They’re being produced.”
But, on the flip side, Donahue has some suggestions for how to better cover the Trump administration: Get out of Washington and talk to average Americans across the country.
“Go to where the silence is,” Donahue said. “All you see on the Sunday shows are secretaries of this and that and powerful people. Let’s talk to the real people, find out how they think, get out of Washington, see what’s going on in Iowa and the Midwest. It’s going to make us more informed.”
Donahue wishes that more op-eds would steer away from the overuse of adjectives to express their disdain for the president and, instead figure out who got him elected.
“We got Donald Trump because we let it happen. We didn’t vote, we were apathetic, and we looked up and now, holy cow, we got a — I don’t want to say it,” Donahue said grinning sheepishly. “We got a p-u-s-s-y grabber for a president and we are appalled. We can’t figure this out. And one of the reasons we didn’t we can’t figure it out is because elite media — as he would call it — failed us.”
Watch the Stelter’s entire interview with Donahue above.