CNN’s Jim Acosta said former President Donald Trump represents a “threat” to the country after leaving office, having the potential to lead a “fringe movement” going forward.
“While he’s still licking his wounds down in Mar-a-Lago, he poses a threat to this country,” Acosta said during a Sunday appearance on Reliable Sources. “This is not a time to put away our fact-checkers in some sort of box on a shelf. They’re going to be needed to fact-check this movement. Trump may be going away, but Trumpism is not.”
Acosta remarked that the former president has been relatively quiet since Inauguration Day, but he expects that to change in the near future.
“I think it is temporary,” Acosta said. “The populist political forces that sent Trump to the White House have the potential to come back in the days to come.”
Acosta reported that when Trump, who he referred to as the “lord of the lies,” does break his silence, it could lead to a “fringe movement.”
“I do think Trump is going to lead at least a fringe movement in this country,” Acosta said.
The CNN reporter said that Trump’s final day as president was “sad,” with Trump opting to spend most of his time in the Oval Office alone.
“It was sort of a sad and pathetic sight,” Acosta said. “I’ve never see him this alone the entire time he was at the level of presidential politics.”
“Essentially, what we saw was the undoing of the Trump presidency,” Acosta continued. “What we saw the president build over the course of four or five years out on the campaign trail and over at the White House just sort of unraveled at the end.”
Speculation over what Trump plans to do after he leaves office has intensified since Inauguration Day, with the former president remarking in a final farewell video Tuesday that his presidency “was only just the beginning” of his movement.
“As I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning,” Trump said. “There’s never been anything like it. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle but instead only grow stronger by the day. As long as the American people hold in their hearts deep and devoted love of country, then there is nothing this nation cannot achieve.”
Exactly how that movement will continue remains a mystery, though some reports indicated that Trump was exploring the idea of creating a new party to compete with Democrats and Republicans.
In his last remarks as president Wednesday, Trump promised to “be back in some form” before departing for his home in Florida.
