WASHINGTON — It was the ultimate Republican call-in.
“It looks like we’ve got a call from the White House,” C-SPAN host Mimi Geerges told viewers Monday night as President Trump dialed into the newly launched program “Washington Journal Primetime.”
The evening broadcast will give additional air time to callers from across the country to share their views on current events — like the longer-running “Washington Journal” in the mornings, which Trump said he watches.
“I like to watch the call-ins because it gives me a little bit of an indication of where we are,” the voracious media monitor said. “I do okay in that. We have some great Republicans calling in, and I’m not so sure the Democrats are thrilled, but the Republicans seem to be.”
Someone could be heard laughing on air as Geerges initially introduced Trump, though it was unclear if the surprised giggles were coming from the president’s line or C-SPAN’s.
C-SPAN’s switchboard is notoriously prone to periodic prankers or callers who spout exotic policy ideas and conspiracy theories — so much so that DC journalists jokingly swap war stories about having to keep a straight face through zany queries.
Geerges used Trump’s call-in to question the president about immigration enforcement and the Iran war.
Trump said that his mass-deportation drive has been softer toward illegal immigrants who are not public safety threats — after the C-SPAN host inquired about the treatment of “the honest people who are are just kind of trying to make a life and paying their taxes.”
“We certainly haven’t put the same push on them as we have on the the murderers or the the drug dealers. Frankly, a big problem we had is the mental institutions being dumped into our country,” Trump said.
“We haven’t put the same pressure on waitresses and on farm workers, etc. Not even close.”
Trump also said he would “be disappointed” if House Republicans voted in favor of outgoing Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s impeachment resolution against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, which could happen as early as this week.
“Pete has won two wars. I mean, he’s been the head person in two wars,” he said.
Trump deflected when asked how much longer the Iran war would last — after saying at a White House briefing hours earlier that the conflict was “effectively over” militarily, but that he would maintain the “status quo” of a naval blockade.
“Well, it depends. I mean, we could knock it out fast,” Trump told C-SPAN.
“We may have to hit Pickaxe Mountain if they’re going to do something. We don’t see that. We have the eye in the sky on it very strongly, and we don’t see it. But bottom line is we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon because they’d use it.”
