Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has dropped out of yet another interview, with his campaign saying he was too “exhausted” to participate, Politico reported.
Trump had been in talks for weeks to appear on a podcast run by The Shade Room, a Black-owned media outlet that focuses on pop culture, in a probable effort to try to peel Black voters away from his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
When the podcast producers tried to nail down a specific date for the interview, an unnamed campaign staffer told them that the 78-year-old Trump was “exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change,” according to Politico.
While Trump was too tired to go on the show, Harris appeared on it last week and spoke about her “Opportunity Agenda For Black Men.” The agenda’s proposed policies include providing forgivable business loans to Black entrepreneurs, offering educational resources for Black men to get jobs in in-demand fields, and a new National Health Equity Initiative for Black men.
The Shade Room cancellation follows a series of other events and interviews Trump has canceled in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Trump “postponed” a planned interview with NBC News in Pennsylvania and canceled a planned event in Savannah, Georgia, with the National Rifle Association. On Tuesday, he also backed out of an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Earlier this month, he dropped out of a planned interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” making numerous excuses about why he wouldn’t participate in the program’s election special that has included every presidential candidate since 1968. (One big reason: Trump did not want to be fact-checked.)
And after getting trounced at the Sept. 10 presidential debate, he refused to agree to a second debate with Harris.
It’s an ironic turn of events for Trump, who took delight in saying “sleepy Joe” Biden was too old and tired to campaign when the two men were facing off.
To be sure, Trump has held events and sat for numerous interviews. But according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, they have largely been with friendly interviewers who do not challenge him.
When he has participated in these interviews and events, he’s acted erratically and made comments that could be off-putting to the independent and swing voters he needs in order to win.
On Friday morning, he appeared with the sycophantic hosts of “Fox & Friends,” where he threatened to withhold funding from public schools that accurately teach American history, said former President Abraham Lincoln should have “settled” with slave-owning Confederate states to avoid the Civil War, and claimed that former President Ronald Reagan was his favorite president when he was “little,” even though Trump was in his 40s when Reagan left office.
Trump also held a bizarre town hall in Pennsylvania on Monday where he gave up on answering questions from the audience and instead spent nearly 40 minutes awkwardly dancing to his campaign playlist on stage.
And on Sunday, he gave an interview to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo and said if he’s reelected, he’ll use the military to go after the “enemy from within,” whom he described as “radical left lunatics” and Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff.
“Donald Trump has no message for the American people and is resorting to the same old tired playbook of darkness and division,” Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “For Donald Trump, this campaign isn’t about the American people, it’s about himself and his petty grievances. Not even Fox & Friends can protect Trump from himself, so it’s no wonder Trump’s handlers refuse to let him debate and keep canceling interviews with mainstream outlets.”
