Fact Check

Is This a Real Transcript from a Trump Interview with Hannity?

The president failed to articulate a single second-term priority or goal for his administration.

Published June 26, 2020

 (Fox News Channel screenshot)
Image Via Fox News Channel screenshot
Claim:
A transcript accurately reproduces an exchange from an interview between Fox News' Sean Hannity and U.S. President Donald Trump.

On June 25, 2020, Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity hosted a town hall event with U.S. President Donald Trump and a small live audience in Green Bay, Wisconsin. By the following day, social media users were circulating a purported reproduction of one "word salad" question-and-answer exchange from that event:

This item was accurate.

When Hannity, one of the most pro-Trump broadcasters in the U.S. news media, asked the president the softball question of "What are your top priority items for a second term," Trump did not articulate a single second-term goal of his. Instead, he offered a stream-of-consciousness narrative about the importance of the word "experience," explained how he hadn't spent much time in Washington prior to becoming president, and derided John Bolton (Trump's former National Security Advisor, who had just published an embarrassing book about his experiences in the Trump administration) as an "idiot":

https://youtu.be/CuwCc8KnqvI?t=35m30s

After that exchange, Hannity abandoned his efforts to get Trump to explicate his second-term goals and instead fed the president a couple of questions that allowed Trump to continue disparaging Bolton and boast about his accomplishments before taking audience questions:

Sources

Fox News Channel.   "Interview: Sean Hannity Hosts a Town Hall With Donald Trump in Green Bay, Wisconsin."     25 June 2020.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.