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Sports legend Charles Barkley has brutally criticized Donald Trump, calling his supporters "nutty people" who are "like your drunk friend."
In Tuesday's Iowa town hall, the former president was asked if he would be a "dictator" in the event of a second term, a question posed by Fox News' Sean Hannity. After deflecting the question, Trump—the front-runner for the Republican nominee in 2024—said that he would only be a dictator on "day one" to implement some of his policies, but would not abuse his power in the White House.
Hannity asked Trump: "Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?"
"Except for day one," Trump said. "I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill," he added in reference to his vow to expand oil drilling in the U.S.
Barkley appeared on CNN's King Charles on Wednesday—the new weekly show hosted by himself and Gayle King—to discuss the fact that Trump refused to say no when asked if he would ever abuse his power for retribution.
Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment via email Thursday and reached out to Barkley through a CNN representative.
"The thing that concerns me about him if he were to win again, I think he would spend the next four years just trying to pay back people who said or did anything to him. It would all be about retribution," Barkley said.
"We've got people out here who need money for their bills, they need food and things like that, so I don't care who the president is, he's supposed to take care of the people. It ain't about retribution, it ain't about what people said about you in the last couple of years, that's one of the reasons I'm not a big Trump fan, I'm just not."
The former basketball star went on to criticize those who support Trump, saying his policies should benefit the majority of Americans, as opposed to only those who vote for him.
Barkley continued: "It's the president of the United States, it ain't for a small little group of nutty people, it's everybody. I don't have anything against Republicans, I don't have anything against Democrats."
King cut in to tell Barkley that Trump's supporters would "object to you calling them nutty people," to which Barkley replied: "I only call them that because they are, they're crazy. They're like your drunk friend. Once your friend's drunk and there's nothing you can say to them, can you imagine?"
He went on to say that Trump isn't "even presidential," saying that although he didn't agree with George W. Bush's politics, he acted like a president. Barkley added: "You're supposed to be superior, you're a leader of the most important place in the world, you're supposed to carry yourself a certain way."
The comments made at the Iowa town hall come after a November 11 New York Times article that said Trump's team is putting together plans for immigration raids and mass deportations. This includes "preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled." Newsweek has not independently verified these claims as of yet.
Trump also plans to weaponize the Justice Department to seek revenge against his critics, "with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute." This is according to a November 5 article from The Washington Post.
King Charles is a once-a-week 10 p.m. ET show on Wednesday evening that premiered to 510,000 viewers, according to Nielsen fast national early numbers.
The show's overall viewing viewership lagged well behind its competitors. The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC averaged 1.62 million viewers, while Fox News's Gutfeld! led the time slot with 1.97 million people.
King Charles was a component of the celebrity-driven primetime programming strategy of former CNN CEO Chris Licht, who was brought in to improve the network's failing primetime and daytime lineups. CNN proceeded with the King-Barkley show, which is a limited series that will run through early next year, despite Licht's June termination from the network.
"King Charles is different than anything we have on CNN's lineup," Amy Entelis, CNN's executive vice president for talent and content development, told Variety. "It's not a newscast, but rather a talk show centered around the news stories and cultural moments that Gayle and Charles are most interested in."
About the writer
Billie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London who has appeared online, in print and on ... Read more