Fox News will air “OBJECTified: Donald Trump” on November 18, featuring TMZ's Harvey Levin interviewing the president-elect about his most prized possessions and the stories behind them. The special is poised to be another softball interview, contributing to the media's tendency to normalize Trump.
The one-hour special will feature host Levin -- a longtime friend of Trump’s -- getting a tour of Trump’s home, with Trump recounting the stories behind his “cherished keepsakes,” according to Politico. He also tells Levin stories during the interview, which was shot in September, including sharing the “decades-old advice from a former president that planted the seeds for his presidential campaign”:
The one-hour special, called “OBJECTified: Donald Trump”, will air Friday evening at 10 p.m. The special will feature an interview with President-elect Trump filmed in September, when he gave Levin a tour of his home and offered “stories behind each memento” there.
“The special will feature a side of President-elect Donald Trump that has rarely been seen before,” Fox said in its announcement. “Trump recounts the stories behind photos, letters, trophies and other cherished keepsakes he’s acquired throughout his life.”
Some of the stories will include how Trump had an “unfulfilled dream of becoming a Hollywood movie mogul, and the decades old advice from a former President that planted the seeds for his presidential campaign.”
In an interview on Fox News' Hannity previewing the special, host Sean Hannity praised Levin, saying that he wasn’t “playing gotcha [with Trump], you were asking real questions in a[n] intimate environment. He brought you in his inner sanctum, in a way, and it ended up giving us a side of Trump that I don't think most Americans know.”
Fox’s special follows the lead set by CBS in its attempt to normalize Trump, despite the racist and bigoted comments and policies the president-elect continues to advocate. On November 13, Lesley Stahl of CBS' 60 Minutes interviewed Trump after his election win to reintroduce him to the American people. During the interview, Stahl allowed Trump to whitewash his extreme positions, which she claimed were "not meant to be taken literally, but as opening bids for negotiation.”
But given Trump’s first steps as president-elect -- his appointment of former Breitbart News CEO Steven Bannon, who bragged about his site serving as a platform for the “alt-right”; his renewed vow to build a wall on the southern border of the country; and his pledge to create some sort of registry for Muslim immigrants -- it is clear Trump will push for the extreme policies he proposed during the campaign.
Donald Trump has praised the interview on Twitter, saying it “features a side of me 'that has rarely been seen before.'”
Per @FoxNews, the 1 hour special tonight by @HarveyLevinTMZ at 10 PM ET, 7 PM PT, features a side of me “that has rarely been seen before.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016