INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively that while he was going through the “scam” arraignment in Manhattan, after District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him, he thought the proceeding was “very unfair” and “very unfortunate.”
Asked during an exclusive interview here after his speech on Friday night to the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual gathering what it was like going through that arraignment, Trump explained that he understands it is entirely political and that he was focused on winning the election the entire time.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during the National Rifle Association Convention on Friday, April 14, 2023, in Indianapolis. (Darron Cummings/AP)
“I thought it was very unfair. It was very unfortunate,” Trump said. “I try to not think about what was going through my mind. You know, you’re there to do a thing and I’m there to win an election. I had no idea it was going to drive me even higher. We were doing very well in the polls before that but normally that doesn’t drive you higher it drives you lower sometimes somewhat but sometimes a lot lower. It drove us a lot higher. I think people see it for what it is: It’s a scam. They’re willing to do that. That’s destroying our country, that kind of stuff. That’s old Soviet Union kind of tactics what they would do. I think it’s a disgrace they are allowed to do it.”
This interview was Trump’s second since his indictment and arraignment. His first interview, with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, touched on this topic briefly but focused mostly on foreign policy and the threats of nuclear war. This interview represents the deepest and most in-depth Trump has gone outside of speeches in reacting to what it was like getting indicted and then arraigned in Manhattan.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court for his arraignment hearing on April 04, 2023 in New York, New York. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Trump added, too, that it is his belief that Democrat President Joe Biden is behind the entire thing—and that the White House is running everything. Trump pointed to the fact that Bragg’s office onboarded former senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official Matthew Colangelo late last year—someone who has spent years targeting Trump in his role at the DOJ and previously in his role in the New York Attorney General’s office.
“Bragg has been very discredited by the indictment because the people that read it, even Democrats—they’re saying this is not an indictment,” Trump said. “Some are saying this is unconstitutional because there’s no crime. He’s been absolutely discredited. It’s a shame. They’re willing to destroy our country. This is all run by the White House, by the way, just in case you have any questions. In fact, they put a man from the White House into one of the top White House/DOJ officials is right there—Matthew Colangelo. He’s the one that’s leading it. He was sitting in the front row in the court during the whole thing. He was in the front row. This is all done by the White House because they don’t want to run against us.”
/1 🚨THREAD — records obtained from our investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Mar-a-Lago raid further confirm that the FBI obtained access to these records through a “special access request” from the Biden White House on behalf of the DOJ.https://t.co/JapM7ZFq4k pic.twitter.com/O9fne5qRD1
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 10, 2023
Trump also noted that despite the White House feigning ignorance regarding the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, documents recently uncovered by America First Legal—the group run by former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller—suggest otherwise.
“I guess it’s Biden. They proclaimed the other day or a couple of weeks ago that they didn’t have anything to do with the raid on Mar-a-Lago, Fourth Amendment, right? The raid on Mar-a-Lago, they knew nothing about it—absolutely nothing,” Trump said. “They made statements that said that. But last week through the good work of Stephen Miller and others we found out that everything was them. They ordered it. They were the ones who did it. These are bad people. They’re sick. There’s something wrong with them. But they said they ordered it, which is probably illegal—but they said so strongly to you and everybody else that ‘we knew nothing about it, this was a surprise to us.’ Well, it turns out it wasn’t a surprise. They’re the ones that organized it. They’re the ones that did it. They knew everything about it. So they got caught in yet another lie.”
Trump laughed when Breitbart News asked him about how Biden smirked at questions from reporters about his reaction to the indictment and if it was politically divisive. “He probably didn’t understand the question,” Trump said of Biden.
Biden laughs when asked if Trump indictment is “politically divisive”https://t.co/FNk232mUdE
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 4, 2023
Trump said he believes that Bragg and Democrats are targeting him using weaponized law enforcement for political purposes because he thinks the Democrats fear they cannot stop him legitimately in 2024.
“Because they can’t beat me at the voting booth,” Trump replied when asked why he thinks the Democrats are doing this.
WATCH: Trump: “They Can’t Beat Us at the Ballot Box,” So Now They Try “The Law”:
RSBN / Rumble
Nonetheless, Trump said he thinks if he wins this time — after having gone through the past few years of the Biden failures — that this win would be even bigger than had he gone back into the White House after the 2020 election.
“It’s very interesting, I said it in the speech, if you saw, when we win this time it’s bigger — much bigger — than if we did it the traditional way,” Trump said. “I think it’s much bigger because they will have shown how bad they are. You’ll be able to do things properly and do things right and get crime stopped, et cetera, et cetera.”
Trump thinks that in addition to the polls that the television ratings of his arraignment — they were massive, so big that some have even compared it to the O.J. Simpson car chase in terms of a daytime television event — are proof of his theory that this is helping him not just in the primary but also the general election.
“I think they want to see me win the election,” Trump said when asked why so many people watched the event. “I don’t think they want to see election interference. That prosecutor has been lambasted even by Democrats because it’s not a crime. He has been just absolutely lambasted. People can’t believe it. But when you think about it, for six years they have reviewed 11 million pages of documents and they couldn’t even come up with a crime. This is what we’re going up against. They are using this for weaponization and election interference. It’s very sad. I think that’s why the audience was so big. I think they really want to see me win.”
Supporters of former President Donald Trump react as his motorcade makes its way to Palm Beach International Airport in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 3, 2023. (GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump added that the high ratings were “an honor” and reiterated he thinks it is because people want him to win.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump line a street during a rally, Monday, April 3, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
“I saw what you’re talking about in terms of the television ratings,” Trump said. “It was the highest rated show in a long time. But look, it’s an honor because people want to see us win and they want to see us bring back the country and they don’t want to see bad things happen.”
WATCH: “Since You Can’t Beat Him, You Indict Him!” — Group Wearing “Blacks for Trump” Shirts Chant Near Manhattan Courthouse:
Ben Von Klemperer via Storyful
Last week, Trump released a policy video explaining how he would mitigate soft-on-crime George Soros-backed District Attorneys nationwide. In it, he explained how he would appoint U.S. Attorneys who are tough on crime as a counterweight, and then open civil rights investigations into the District Attorneys not prosecuting actual crimes while engaging in political persecution of conservatives.
“We’re going to put great people in that are all about law and order but they’re about fairness as well,” Trump told Breitbart News when asked about the plan. “They’re going to go in and straighten this out, because we have a criminal justice system right now that’s criminal what they’re doing.”
#AGENDA47: President Trump’s plan to RESTORE JUSTICE in America and end the corrupt weaponization of our justice system!pic.twitter.com/lJ7k2DpGrI
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) April 13, 2023
Trump also ripped Special Counsel Jack Smith, the DOJ-picked investigator targeting him over the documents at Mar-a-Lago stemming from the FBI raid there last year, as a “thug” and ripped him for all the interviews he is conducting comparing it to Grand Central station. Trump said both Smith and his wife are what he calls a “Trump hater” and that fact should bar Smith from doing this.
“The special prosecutor is a thug. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said. “He’s interviewing people all day long. It’s like Grand Central terminal—people going in and out, in and out. They’re trying to destroy lives. He’s a thug. He’s no good. He’s a bad guy—and a Trump hater, and his wife is a Trump hater. They contributed to all these campaigns of the radical left. He is absolutely a Trump hater and he shouldn’t be allowed to do this. What they’re doing is unconstitutional and so illegal. But the good news is through interviews with you and others, the people get it. They very much understand it. The voters get it. But this shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”