This week, Donald Trump won primaries in Michigan, Mississippi, and Hawaii, and then proceeded to give perhaps the strangest victory speech in the history of American presidential races. Trump had assembled a pile of meat, wines, a pyramid of bottled water, and one magazine to make a point that he is a successful businessman.
You see, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had said that Trump was really bad at running companies and was good at running them into the ground, and mentioned things like Trump's steak company and magazine as failures. Not content to let this go and walk away with his delegates, Trump assembled these things — the meat, the water, a magazine — onstage at a Republican primary victory speech to show that he's good at running businesses.
"You just have to go check the records, folks," Trump said, specifically referring to Trump Wine. "In fact, the press. I'm asking you, please check."
So the team at The Daily Show did. And they found out he was lying and telling half-truths about many of the products on stage. What The Daily Show found:
- "Trump Steaks" do not currently exist, and you can't buy one for $50 (which Trump mentions in his speech). Trump Steaks were actually sold by Sharper Image, whose CEO at the time said that virtually none of the Trump Steaks sold.
- "Trump Wine" is not affiliated with Donald Trump, who said he owned it without a debt or a mortgage to pay. On the Trump Winery website, it says clearly that it is not owned or affiliated with Donald Trump.
- "Trump Magazine" went out of circulation in 2009 and published 10 issues. But Trump referred to a magazine called the Jewel of Palm Beach in his speech and called that his magazine. It's the magazine that is supplied in his hotels, and he is not the publisher.
- "Trump Water" is generic bottled water that "he slapped his name on."
All that meat, that pyramid of water, the bottles of wine, and that lonely magazine that Trump brought onstage to prove that he's a great businessman were all just bunk. And he had the audacity to ask the press to call him on his lies.
"So basically all of Trump's claims of business success are…" Daily Show host Trevor Noah asks his correspondent Jordan Klepper.
"Crap, they're just crap," Klepper said, reminding us that this is the man coasting to the Republican presidential nomination.
