There are lots of reasons Americans should see the Trump family finances but the Fox & Friends hosts pretended none existed as they listened sympathetically to Trump’s dishonest attempts to justify keeping them hidden by trying to block subpoenas.
During this appearance, Trump hideously suggested that Democrats might be interested in how much sister Tiffany drinks on Friday afternoons, but the real purpose was to complain about Democratic investigations into his family finances.
Cohost Brian Kilmeade let young Trump know right in the opening that he was among Fox Friends: "The attorney general of New York has made it clear she is going after you guys with no apparent reason just except for maybe that she wants to make a name for herself,” Kilmeade began, “or feels as though that’s what the American people want. So they are trying to get your bank records on every major banking transaction you've done."
FACT CHECK: A simple Google search reveals that Attorney General Letitia James has called it “really critically important” to find out whether or not Trump “devalued his corporations and he received some tax benefits thereof.” Furthermore, testimony from Michael Cohen and news investigations have indicated that Trump inflated his net worth and deflated it whenever it suited his purposes. There’s also that devastating New York Times exposé that found Trump engaged in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents.”
With the door opened for his victimhood, Trump whined, "It's so sad because this is presidential harassment 101."
"This is the deep state,” Trump continued. “They don't actually want to do their job. They don't want to fix health care, they don't want to fix immigration."
Cohost Steve Doocy said sympathetically, "Congress wants your financial records, your family’s financial records. So now you are suing Capital One and Deutsche Bank to keep them from complying with the subpoenas, right?"
"We're not adversarial to the banks,” Trump insisted, which is not surprising given that his family probably still relies on their services. “We’re just saying this is presidential harassment. This is all these people do. They're not winning, the economy's incredible, this country is doing great. I don't think they have any front-runner candidate right now, and if it's Joe Biden, I’d love to run against him because they have an awful track record from the last administration.”
FACT CHECK: Biden led Donald Trump by six points in a recent poll. Furthermore, at every point in his term so far, Trump has trailed President Barack Obama in approval rating.
Later, Trump said,"Under the entire eight years of Obama, you didn't have a single wage increase. Meaning wages were totally stagnant during the entire eight years. In fact, they were even stagnant before that. We have massive wage increase in this country."
FACT CHECK: As of August 2018, inflation-adjusted hourly wages have grown 0.3% under Trump vs. 1.1% during Obama's second term (2013-17).
Trump also claimed, "Obamacare was singlehandedly the worst thing that's ever happened to health care in the nation."
FACT CHECK: 20 million Americans gained health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The worst thing could be if the Trump administration’s efforts to demolish it causes 20 millions to lose their health insurance.
At no time was there a challenge to Trump’s BS from any of the three cohosts.
Eric Trump continued playing up his victimhood. “So what do they want to do? They want to harass Trump. They don’t want to do their jobs"
At last, Kilmeade acknowledged he knew at least partially why Attorney General James was interested in the Trump finances after all: "She says any potential illegalities involving the Trump real estate holdings in New York, highlighting the New York Times investigation." Also, "They go back to 2016 Trump Tower meeting again, examining government subsidies that Trump has received which were also subject to the Times investigation."
Trump griped, “What the hell is the legislative purpose of subpoenaing for records associating with, possibly buying the Buffalo Bills?" As he almost surely knows, it’s because Michael Cohen testified that Daddy Trump falsified his finances for the purposes of getting a loan.
Instead of pointing that out, Doocy helpfully said that the deal “didn’t happen.”
Cohost Jedediah Bila did her part as a Trump Friend. "It's exhausting to voters," she claimed. "Democrats are really struggling to talk about the issues."
Watch Eric Trump prove he’s a chip off the old Trump block below, from the April 30, 2019 Fox & Friends.