Trump was lonely in final days and it was a 'sad' sight, says Jim Acosta: 'I have never seen him this alone'
Commenting on former President Donald Trump's final days in office, CNN's Jim Acosta, who led the network's coverage of Trump's presidency, said on Sunday, January 24, that the ex-POTUS appeared to be sad and lonely in the days leading up to him leaving the White House.
Before he boarded Air Force One with family and the press, including Acosta, Trump greeted a small crowd of about 200 at Joint Base Andrews as part of his farewell to Washington on Wednesday, January 20, morning. "It was sort of a sad and pathetic sight," Acosta told CNN's Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter on 'Reliable Sources' on Sunday, January 24. "I've never seen him this alone the entire time he was at the level of presidential politics."
According to Acosta, Trump lost whatever remaining credibility he had with voters after instigated a riot that laid siege to the US Capitol on January 6, as part of his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in which he ended up on the losing side.
"Essentially what we saw was the undoing of the Trump presidency," Acosta said of Trump's final days. "What we saw the President build over the course of four or five years out on the campaign trail and over at the White House just sort of unraveled at the end."
For Trump, who has relished the spotlight for decades — even before he became the leader of the nation, thanks in part to Twitter which became his unofficial mouthpiece and a way for him to reach his supporters — he became quiet as he was banned from the immensely popular platform after the January 6 events. Apart from a few short video messages and his last address to supporters at Joint Base Andrews, he has largely remained out of public view.
Even mainstream media outlets refrained from covering Trump once he was out of the White House. None of them, barring some tabloids, have stationed reporters in Palm Beach, Florida — where the ex-POTUS is staying at the moment — to cover Trump. However, this does not mean that Trump will stay quiet for long.
"I think it is temporary," Acosta told Stelter. He also predicted that the political forces that sent Trump to the White House "have the potential to come back in the days to come. I do think Trump is going to lead at least a fringe movement in this country." And if the Senate in its upcoming impeachment trial fails to convict Trump, the possibility of him running for office again remains.
Acosta still calls Trump "lord of the lies" and believes he should not be ignored. "While he's still licking his wounds down in Mar-a-Lago, he poses a threat to this country," Acosta said. "This is not a time to put away our fact-checkers in some sort of box on a shelf. They're going to be needed to fact-check this movement. Trump may be going away, but Trumpism is not."
Apparently, Trump loved comparing himself to ex-President Grover Cleveland, who remains the only POTUS to serve two non-consecutive terms. However, Cleveland was more popular than Trump when he won his second term, Acosta noted. With record-low popularity in the last days of office, Trump probably has lost the ability to lead a major political party or win back the presidency. "Trump isn't going to be able to do that right now," Accosta predicted.