NBC’s Peter Alexander: WH Aide Boasted President’s Brand is So Big Now He Could Get ‘Trump Moscow’ He’s Wanted for Years
NBC News White House correspondent Pete Alexander reported that a Trump aide boasted that President Donald Trump’s brand is so big following his first term that he could “monetize” it in a number of ways, including “even Trump Moscow that he’s wanted all these years.”
On Thursday’s edition of Andrea Mitchell Reports, host Andrea Mitchell asked Alexander what’s happening behind the scenes during Trump’s week-long public [non-Twitter] silence.
“Is he still in denial, what stage of denial is he in?” Mitchell asked.
Alexander quipped that “As we talk about states won and lost, it’s clear the president remains in that state of denial,” and noted that Trump’s Twitter attacks on Fox News this morning don’t “happen in a vacuum. There has been new reporting today by separate outlets saying, among other things, that the president is considering a digital media empire going forward after this.”
Alexander then reported several things that he’s been hearing from Trump officials and aides, including that “the president is very aware that there is no path to victory,” but that Trump feels his fans “deserve a fight and so this battle right now is almost a form of theater for them.”
He also noted the potential for various cabinet members to try and talk Trump down, and that Trump’s newly-formed PAC is an indication of an eye toward future political activity.
“And as he looks to his own future I’m struck by what one of his aides said to me in recent days,” Alexander said. “They said consider all of the monetization, the commercialization opportunities for this president right now. ‘His brand’s never been so big,’ this Trump ally said to me, they said ‘You could have Trump Riyadh, you could even have Trump Moscow that he’s wanted all these years.'”
Details of a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow emerged last year after Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani denied such a deal was ever pursued.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
