Former President Donald Trump said the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh made him think about his own mortality.
Trump made the comments during a telephone interview on Wednesday night on the conservative Newsmax network. Presenter Greg Kelly asked Trump, who is 74, if Limbaugh’s death at the “tender” age of 70 made him consider his “own mortality for just a minute”.
“Well, you think about it,” Trump replied. “But I also have friends who are in their 80s and 90s. You look at Bernie Marcus, [co-founder of] Home Depot, he’s 93, he’s 100 percent. It was amazing, I watched him the other night on television, he was 100 percent. So, you know, I think that depending on life and genes and many other things, I think it depends. “
“Rush was young, relatively speaking, he was young,” continued Trump. “He just made a terrible deal with what he had. It wasn’t something that was going to be defeated and he understood that.”
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty
Limbaugh died on Wednesday after battling advanced lung cancer for just over a year. Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his State of the Union address in 2020, which came a day after Limbaugh publicly announced his cancer diagnosis.
Trump said that although Limbaugh knew his condition was terminal, he specifically expected to survive after the 2020 presidential election. The former president said that Limbaugh agreed with him that the election result was “shameful”, with Trump losing unequivocally to the president Joe Biden, while falsely claiming that he had actually “won” the election.
“He wanted to go through the election and it was easy,” said Trump. “And he thought we won the election. We won the election, as far as I’m concerned. It was shameful what happened, totally shameful. But Rush wanted to go through the election and he did it and was proud of it. But he thought the result it was a shame. “
Limbaugh said that “by no means” Biden legitimately won the election shortly after the dispute was called by most media outlets, but he did not appear to be in complete agreement with all aspects of Trump’s campaign activities after the election. In late November, Limbaugh regretted that the “blockbuster” evidence was not produced by lawyers who promote conspiracy theories involving widespread electoral fraud.
Limbaugh was also not an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, even admitting that he believed Trump “was not a conservative” after he started supporting him months before the election. However, he ended up becoming one of the ex-president’s staunchest supporters during his presidency.
Limbaugh campaigned with Trump during his failed re-election attempt. Some of Limbaugh’s latest broadcasts showed him defending the former president against allegations that he incited the January 6 uprising at the United States Capitol, which led Trump to become the first and only president to face two charges.
Newsweek contacted the Trump office for additional comments.