Is Trump’s CNN Town Hall a Pre-meditated Gamble?

Donald J. Trump, the former president of the United States, will take a political risk by appearing at a town hall on CNN on Wednesday night, answering questions from New Hampshire voters. Trump’s advisers expect tough questions, including those on abortion, investigations, and the recent verdict of him being liable for defamation and sexual abuse. However, they count on the broader audience that CNN brings and aim to seek a broader audience as he campaigns for the Republican nomination.

The town hall meeting will be the first appearance of Donald Trump on CNN since the 2016 campaign. CNN has maintained their position of direct touch between presidential candidates and voters in this town hall format, which has been a staple of their presidential campaign coverage.

According to David Chalian, CNN‘s political director, “there is no change to our format because of the unique nature of Donald Trump’s candidacy.”

As a risk, the former president’s advisers believe that it’s worth taking as they know he mostly will be facing questions from Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters in New Hampshire, where Mr. Trump won elections in 2016 and is still popular among Republicans.

As revealed through Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s report in the New York Times, Mr. Trump is not prone to practice sessions. The Trump team has spent considerable time discussing the politics of abortion. Trump advisers are aware of the politics in play around abortion, and Mr. Trump’s statements in this regard, especially after the midterm elections of 2022, have troubled some prominent anti-abortion activists.

Although Trump’s recent comments on abortion have been worrying for anti-abortion groups, he held a meeting with leaders of the anti-abortion movement at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, May 8, 2023, to clarify his stance.

On the issue of abortion, while Trump has refused to say he would support a national abortion ban, he reiterated his stance that abortion policy should be left to the states. In the CNN town hall, Mr. Trump might not stipulate a specific number of the number of weeks at which abortion should be illegal; instead, he is expected to take credit for keeping his anti-abortion promises in office.

The immediate political consequences and approval ratings may be different for every town hall. But it takes courage and political will to face a broad audience, even more so when you are a controversial figure like Donald Trump. He has mostly appeared in right-wing networks and podcasts since his presidency, and his team recognizes that he needs to start venturing beyond the mainstream conservative media to gain access to a broader audience.

In conclusion, the CNN town hall meeting will serve Trump‘s political agenda in many ways, and the pre-meditated gamble might bring dividends for the former president. It also serves as a warning for other candidates to venture beyond the safe space of their die-hard supporters and reach out to a broader audience if they want to stand up to a candidate like Trump.