Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump appeared on Fox News contributor Mike Gallagher's radio program and entertained Gallagher's conspiracy theory about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump has been receiving criticism for appearing on Michael Savage's program and claiming that one of the reported details of Scalia's death was “pretty unusual.”
Trump guested on the February 15 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's The Mike Gallagher Show. Gallagher claimed to not be “a conspiracy theorist, I don't think you are either, but boy it seems peculiar that there doesn't seem to be an autopsy planned.” Trump replied, “Wow ... I had just heard this from you, Mike, that's interesting.” Trump didn't refute Gallagher's conspiracy mongering -- instead, he declared the supposedly suspicious circumstances surrounding Scalia's death to be “big stuff.”
GALLAGHER: I have to say, and my audience, the phone lines are burning up and people are questioning the circumstances behind Justice Scalia's death and you know, this is a beloved man -- a husband, father, grandfather, found lying in bed with a pillow over his head. It's all over the Drudge Report. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I don't think you are either, but boy it seems peculiar that there doesn't seem to be an autopsy planned --
TRUMP: Wow.
GALLAGHER: -- for the death of such an important person. I mean -- this is, like, pretty shocking stuff, don't you think?
TRUMP: Well I had just heard this from you, Mike, that's interesting. This is the new theory that came out as of this morning.
GALLAGHER: Well it is and the owner of the ranch, he was quoted as having found Justice Scalia in bed. There were no marshals, he had no protection, and he was found according to the owner of the ranch with a pillow over his head, looking like peaceful repose. He was declared dead over the phone by a justice of the peace who was not even there in person. There's just -- it just seems to me that if there was a liberal Supreme Court justice who passed away and we would have this debate on the other side, there would be cries for an investigation --
TRUMP: Wow.
GALLAGHER: -- an autopsy. I mean no autopsy being planned?
TRUMP: That's big stuff. Especially since it's really the turn of the court. You know, you're really talking about the balance of the court, that's big stuff. Wow.
GALLAGHER: This is history, this is history, it's huge.
TRUMP: That'll be a new topic. That'll be a new topic --
GALLAGHER: Well, yeah, I hope you have a chance to look into it.
TRUMP: -- to increase your ratings even further.
GALLAGHER: Yeah, and maybe spend some time on it as you delve into that.
Trump concluded the interview by thanking Gallagher for being “so supportive and so nice” to him.
Trump also appeared on the February 15 broadcast of The Savage Nation, during which Savage told Trump that Scalia might have been “murdered.” When Savage asked Trump if he would support “the equivalent of a Warren Commission” to investigate Scalia's death, he replied that he “just heard” that “they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow. I can't tell you what -- I can't give you an answer.”