‘What’s Going On Here?’ CNN’s Abby Phillip Roasts Trump Sneakers And Parade Of ‘Surreal’ Trump Merch
CNN anchor Abby Phillip mercilessly roasted former President Donald Trump over his new gold-colored sneakers — snarking “$400 for those?” — as well as a parade of other “surreal” merchandise he has “shilled.”
Trump rolled out the shiny gold-colored T-festooned sneaks during a rowdy appearance on Saturday at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia — selling out a thousand pre-orders in hours while drawing mockery from critics.
On Monday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip teased a segment on the footwear by telling viewers “Just ahead, $400 for those? Donald Trump plays Footlocker for a weekend, adding to a lengthy history of shilling for all sorts of things.”
Phillip then introduced her panel segment by mocking Trump over his history of “surreal” products that include “Never Surrender merchandise, of course, featuring his mugshot, which the very existence of signals surrender”:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: That’s the real deal.
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PHILLIP: The presidential candidate moonlighting as a shoe salesman. Donald Trump introducing a new sneaker line at a shoe conference in Philly over the weekend. Those gold shoes at $400 a pop arrive as Trump is facing a serious threat to his cash stockpile.
Just 24 hours earlier, a judge had ordered him to pay more than $350 million as punishment for his company’s fraud.
PHILLIP: Now, this is hardly the first surreal product that the former President has promoted with a T inscribed on it. There was Trump ice and ice trays, vodka, coffee, steaks, a cutting board, cookies, jelly beans, red solo cup, a flask in the shape of a football, a honey dipper, urine test kits, a magazine, a board game, a speaker in the shape of Trump’s body, gold-colored earbuds.
Cologne, his and her luxury robes, scented candles, mattresses, pickleball paddles, a USB drive in the shape of a gold bar, mortgages, diplomas, for which he was accused of fraud, NFTs, and “Never Surrender” merchandise, of course, featuring his mugshot, which the very existence of signals surrender.
For more, I want to bring in “Rolling Stone” Columnist, Jay Michelson, along with Republican Strategist and Political Commentator Joe Pinion. Jay, that is quite the list. I mean, is this about making money? Is this about trying to reach the demographic that attends these sneaker conventions? What’s going on here?
JAY MICHAELSON: Well, I’m happy to hear that the sneaker head response is pretty negative, kind of a knockoff of another shoe, basically. But he does only need to sell one million of those pairs of shoes in order to pay his legal bills. So, you know, kind of growth market.
PHILLIP: Easy, peasy.
MICHAELSON: Yeah, no problem.
PHILLIP: Yeah.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
