Trump campaign staffers are hilariously making fun of CNN’s town hall that hosted former President Trump, reportedly branding it as a string of “Trump infomercials” and an “in-kind campaign contribution.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

The claim is not verified but The Guardian is reporting it as fact, citing unnamed Trumpworld sources.

The town hall was held at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire on Wednesday night and was moderated by CNN host Kaitlan Collins. It was vintage Trump who simply incensed leftists all over the place who slammed the network for daring to have him on.

Reporter Hugo Lowell at The Guardian claims that Trump’s campaign is ecstatic over the event and is gleefully taunting the leftist network for the massive publicity provided to the former president.

“Donald Trump believes he got everything that he wanted from the controversial town hall hosted by CNN, according to multiple people close to him, even as it embarrassed the network and prompted a wave of outrage, including from many of its own staff who were upset that it gave Trump a platform to lie to a large audience,” he noted.

“Trump’s advisers saw the town hall ultimately as a strategic win for the former president, who reveled in playing off the live audience of Republican and Republican-leaning voters in New Hampshire, which is hosting the first 2024 GOP presidential primary, and talked over the CNN moderator, Kaitlan Collins, as she tried to fact-check him in real-time,” Lowell wrote.

“Afterwards, Trump allies joked that the event in their eyes amounted to an hour of Trump infomercials and should be recorded as an in-kind campaign contribution and that Trump’s nearest rival for the nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, would be crushed in a similar debate,” he added.

Trump has boasted about the viewing audience who tuned in for the event. According to Mediaite, it quintupled CNN’s average audience in that time slot. It was double the viewership of Fox News and MSNBC.

Gutfeld: God I missed him pic.twitter.com/BBIHbJpZaI

— Karli Bonne’ (@KarliBonnita) May 11, 2023

The media outlet also claimed, “But the ratings were not as strong as President Joe Biden’s past CNN town halls — or Trump’s own past Fox News events. And ex-CNN host Brian Stelter noted on Twitter that ‘One day after the Trump town hall drew 3+ million viewers to CNN, the network returned to its usual ratings levels on Thursday, averaging 538,000 viewers in prime time. No ‘retention,’ in TV parlance, from the night before.'”

Despite the cold water leftists are throwing on the town hall, the videos will make great fodder for the Trump campaign. They are the gift that will keep on giving as the former president moves toward the nomination for the GOP.

Democrats see it the same way for them and claim, “It was quite efficient. Weeks worth of damning content in one hour.”

President Biden tweeted after the town hall, “It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that? If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign.”

It’s simple, folks.

Do you want four more years of that?

If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign.https://t.co/EwCflbYn22

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 11, 2023

Leftists in general, including those at CNN were furious according to Lowell, “In stark contrast to the Trump camp’s jubilation, the mood inside CNN was dour amid widespread reports of internal disgust. The network’s own media reporter Oliver Darcy wrote in his newsletter on Wednesday that it was ‘hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN.'”

“CNN should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost total control of this ‘town hall’ to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan. 6th and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim. The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

CNN should be ashamed of themselves.

They have lost total control of this “town hall” to again be manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defenses of Jan 6th, and a public attack on a sexual abuse victim.

The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2023

CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht praised Collins’ “masterful performance” and defended holding the town hall, according to Fortune.

“If someone was going to ask tough questions and have that messy conversation, that damn well should be on CNN,” he said in a recording of the meeting that was reportedly obtained by the Associated Press.”

“While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story, because the people in that audience represent a large swath of America,” Licht told those at CNN. “And the mistake the media made in the past is ignoring that those people exist. Just like you cannot ignore that President Trump exists.”

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