Jonathan Karl was the featured guest on Tuesday’s (October 28) edition of The View to dig into the “Hot Topics” of the day alongside cohosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
The ABC News chief Washington correspondent, who was also promoting his new tell-all about Donald Trump‘s 2024 campaign, titled Retribution, revealed some fascinating behind-the-scenes accounts of key moments. He also answered Haines’ question about Trump and why he’s been playing into the concept — as floated by his former strategist Steve Bannon — that he might run for a third term in 2028.
In response to that question, Karl shared his theory as to why Trump won’t just say that he’s not going to run again: “Look, I don’t think that Donald Trump is serious about running for a third term, but this talk can get out of control. It starts as a way to freak out his opponents. He loves showing off the 2028 hats — Trump 2028 hats to anyone that comes to the White House. He knows that it freaks out his opponents. I think that’s the intention here,” he explained. “But here’s the thing, how does he leave the stage? How does that happen? Because if the minute he makes it clear he’s not going to try to run again, then all the attention goes. He’s a lame duck president, and all the attention goes to Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance, whoever else may be running. Is he ready to cede the stage in that way? I mean, I’m sure he’d love to do The Apprentice thing, but at some point, does he really pass that baton, and he’s no longer in the center of attention? I don’t know how he does that.” Karl went on to cite his own sources to add, “I know he’s told people, ‘Look, I’m leaving.’”
Karl also addressed the reason why Trump has been doing such extensive renovations on the White House and working so hard on foreign peace deals while things on the domestic front are taking a turn for the worse, like with the government shutdown and certain benefits lapsing.
“The end game for Donald Trump, he is thinking now more than he ever did — I don’t think he thought much of it in the first term — about his place in history and his legacy. And he sees it in different terms than what you’re defining. He sees it in terms of how the White House has transformed and how he is lauded around the world as a great Peacemaker,” Karl said.
Karl also found himself in the hot seat for a while when Behar questioned him about his own involvement in the story of Donald Trump’s second presidency term after revealing that he called Trump to congratulate him after the election.
As Karl remembered, “I do something kind of silly when I call Donald Trump. There’s no way he’s going to pick up. I figured I would just leave him a message like, ‘After all this, Congratulations, you won.’ And he picks up, and his voice, I mean, he sounded — and he hadn’t slept at all, I hadn’t… ‘Hello Jon.’ And I said, ‘Mr. President Elect, I just want to say congratulations.’ And he said, ‘On what, Jonathan? What?’ You ever seen Breaking Bad?.. There’s a famous scene in Breaking Bad where it’s like, ‘Say my name, say my name.’ … So I said, ‘On the greatest comeback victory in the history of American politics.’ But he wanted to hear me say the words.”
To that, Behar said, “You know, you have a very strange relationship with him. This personal conversation you have with him right now, it’s weird. I mean, when you’re interviewing him in public, he’s nasty to you.”
Karl, after conceding the point and sharing his intel that Trump was “effusively nice to Joe Biden” during their post-election meeting), added, “I called my first book Front Row at the Trump Show…. He still does see this as the world’s greatest reality show.”
The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC