One responsibility for the co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) is to campaign for their candidates.
With the 2024 election two weeks away, RNC co-chair and Donald Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump is making the media rounds and showing up in some unexpected places. One such place is The Breakfast Club radio show/podcast.
The Breakfast Club is a nationally syndicated morning radio show that airs on over 100 stations nationwide, on Revolt TV, and as a podcast. The show is hosted by DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne tha God.
It was described as "appointment listening every day for people of color" by talk radio industry magazine Talkers and "a radio forum for the nation’s racial reckoning" by the LA Times.
As the latest nepotism appointment at the RNC—Trump replaced Ronna "my uncle is Mitt Romney" McDaniel, Lara was chosen as the former Republican President's favorite mouthpiece over her husband Eric and brother-in-law Don Jr. when Ivanka Trump Kushner distanced herself after the January 6, 2021 attempted coup.
Lara Trump has past experience with mainstream media—she was a story coordinator and producer for Inside Edition from 2012 to 2016. Lara Trump also has an ability to spout Trump rhetoric—often misinformation or blatant lies—while being articulate and focused during live interviews that neither Eric nor Don Jr. share.
So Lara Trump was dispatched on Monday to The Breakfast Club to try to appeal to BIPOC voters. But the hosts weren't buying what Lara Trump—and her father-in-law—were selling, unlike the people at Fox News or Newsmax who fawn over Trump.
You can watch the moment here:
Co-host DJ Envy questioned the RNC co-chair about Donald Trump's well documented racism.
He specifically cited when Donald and his father were sued in 1973 by the NYC Department of Housing Development for rental discrimination against Black people, and when the former President took out a full-page ad in 1989 calling for the “death penalty” for the now exonerated Central Park Five, and then in the lead-up to 2008 when Trump pushed the birtherism conspiracy theory about former Democratic President Barack Obama.
DJ Envy didn't even get into Trump's use of the name Pocahontas as a slur, despite Indigenous groups including the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) repeatedly asking him to stop dishonoring Matoaka.
Lara Trump interrupted DJ Envy to respond:
"That‘s ridiculous. I’ve known this man for 16 years."
"And, you know, you can go to each of those incidents, and you know, there was, there was never any, any proof of anything with the houses; they settled that. There was no admission of anything there."
@jesminardi/Threads
Instead of addressing Trump's targeting of and continuing attacks against the wrongfully accused, convicted and now exonerated Central Park Five, Lara Trump deflected to place blame on Democrats.
The five innocent men are now suing Trump for defamation for continuing to claim they're guilty of the brutal rape during his rallies, in interviews, and during his only presidential debate against Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The RNC co-chair added:
"However, I will say that you have to look at somebody and what they actually have done, and Donald Trump really was very beneficial to the Black community when he was in the White House."
"I will say I’ve never seen this man say a racist thing. I think the attacks are fairly—"
At which point, co-host Charlamagne tha God laughed.
@hockey_eeyore/Threads
Trump abruptly asked him:
"Why is that funny, Charlamagne?"
To which he responded:
"I’m just laughing. It’s hysterical."
"People act like there’s no such thing as Google or we don’t have TV, we don't have radio…"
After Lara Trump demanded proof or the former Republican President's racism, the show cut to clips of some of Donald Trump's racist comments.
@jjuliewitt.39/Threads
The RNC co-chair tried deflecting again, using the "some of his best friends are...." tactic.
Lara Trump said:
"This is a man who was beloved by so many people in this country, and he was friends with everybody."
"Jesse Jackson, by the way... he let them stay rent-free in one of his buildings—the Rainbow Coalition—because he felt like at the time that was a very important thing."
But co-host Jess Hilarious called her on it, saying:
"Please don’t do that 'he had Black friends'. That’s not going to work out."
She responded by trying the "he's the victim" tactic, saying:
"You can go pick apart somebody all you want. It is a traditional talking point to attack Republicans, to call them racist."
"But when you look at the things that he wants for this country, he wants every person to be successful. He wants Black Americans to be successful, Hispanic Americans to be successful, women to be successful."
@mfbrodie/Threads
Really pushing her victim narrative, she added:
"I hate that the constant knee jerk is 'Donald Trump is a racist, Donald Trump is a racist'. I can tell you he wants every person to be successful."
"He’ll work for every American equally. He did that the first term when he was President, and he’ll do it again."
Charlamagne tha God then pointed out Donald Trump's more recent racism, asking:
"How do you ask Mexicans and Muslims to ignore a lot of the rhetoric, Haitians to ignore a lot of the rhetoric that he said about them that is dangerous, that has villainized them, that has demonized them?"
Lara Trump then tried using the "he was misquoted" or his comments were misunderstood" tactic.
@riccardo_red/Threads
But Charlamagne tha God wasn't buying what she was selling, replying:
"When you make these broad generalizations, you do hurt the Haitian Americans that are here, the Mexican Americans that are here. They all get labeled and villainized and demonized."
Out of tactics that usually work for her, Lara Trump just dismissed the evidence of Trump's racism by stating:
"If you’re an American citizen, Donald Trump doesn’t care [about] your religion. He doesn’t care what you look like."
People weren't fooled though.
@tomwellborn3/Threads
@dbhollister1/Threads
@selectedbyhim/Threads
Things probably didn't go as planned, but the Trump campaign will undoubtedly call it a big win.
It seems the only person who left the discussion thinking Donald Trump isn't racist might be Lara Trump.
Unless she lied about that, too.
You can see the full 55 minute episode of The Breakfast Club including the Lara Trump interview here:
- YouTubeyoutu.be
@LeeMerrittesq/X
@bob_moss/X
@jelanijones/Bluesky
@Aurkayne/X
@sadcommunistdog; @froglok/Bluesky