Donald Trump alleges that when he was detained and checked in at a New York courthouse last week, officers and workers “were genuinely crying.”
He made history by denying 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money plan involving adult film star Stormy Daniels. He was the first former US president to be charged with a crime.
In his first interview since, he spoke extensively about the arraignment, explaining how the court’s hardened officers—who are capable of “putting in murderers”—were “in tears or close to it.”
He also discussed the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021, saying the US left a number of dogs – ‘mostly German Shepherds’ – behind, as well as the Ukraine war, calling Vladimir Putin a ‘smart’ man who has ‘loves Ukraine’ and has had ‘probably a bad year’.
Footage from inside the Manhattan courthouse last week showed Trump surrounded by stony-faced staff – one of whom even appeared to refuse to hold the door open for him.
The former president has long been mocked for claiming people cry when they meet him.
Speaking to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, he said: ‘When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison, in a sense, they signed me in and I’ll tell you, people were crying.
‘People that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers, they see everybody. It’s a tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying.
‘They said I’m sorry. They’d say “2024, sir, 2024” and tears are pouring down their eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it.
‘Those people are phenomenal. Those are your police. Those are the people that work at the courthouse, they’re unbelievable people.
‘Many of them were in tears or close to it. Many apologies – “we’re sorry, sir, we’re sorry”.
‘In one sense it was beautiful, because they get it, but in another sense it’s nasty – I went to the Wharton School of Finance, they didn’t teach me that.’
Trump repeated his insistence that he is innocent and there is no case against him.
Carlson asked if there was ‘anything they could throw at [him] legally’ that would convince him to drop out of the 2024 race to the White House.
Trump replied: ‘No, I’d never drop out. It’s not my thing. I wouldn’t do it.’
There is no legal bar to running or winning the presidency as a convicted felon or even from behind bars.
Elsewhere in the hour-long interview, he told Carlson he asked a five-year-old about the best way to manage the evacuation from Afghanistan and claimed the US left a number of dogs behind.
He said: ‘They left the dogs — you know the dog lovers, and there are a lot of them, I love dogs, you love dogs, but they left the dogs.
‘One of the first questions I got: “What did they do with the dogs?” Mostly German Shepherds.’
Trump, who has criticised the way his successor Joe Biden handled the evacuation, said he asked a child what order it should have happened.
He said: ‘I did a little skit with a five-year-old kid, I said, “Let me ask you: here’s the situation.” I explained the situation. I said, “Would you take the military out first or would you take it out last?” “I’d take it out last.” Five-year-old.”
Trump was also asked if he had spoken to Putin about Ukraine, saying: ‘I could see that he loved it. He considers it to be a part of Russia. I said not when I’m president.’
He said of the Russian president: ‘Putin – very smart. Now, he’s had probably a bad year.’