On their Wednesday episode, ABC’s The View spewed their usual vitriol about the Trump administration, with Joy Behar especially going above and beyond. As the rest of the panel cheered her on, she spun an on-the-spot conspiracy theory, with zero to flimsy evidence, about Trump plotting to declare martial law and make himself a dictator. She threw that piece of fiction out there as though it were legitimate political commentary.
“[W]hat is his exact plan?” Behar demanded to know of Trump’s tariffs. Then, in answer to her own question, she declared: “He's trying to destroy the country.”
Behar did not attempt to produce a shred of actual evidence for this accusation, but she didn’t let that stand in her way, and decided to weave a conspiracy theory out of whole cloth right there on the spot.
“Now, why’s he doing that?” she asked rhetorically. She then went on to manufacture an answer to her own question:
[F]irst of all- he- if he tanks the entire … the stock market, then all his billionaire friends can swoop in and buy everything low. That's not an original idea.
Her apparent idea of evidence to that conspiracy theory was a Truth Social post by Trump stating, “A great time to buy.” “Hmm,” Behar emoted as if she was onto something; obtuse to the fact that Trump likely wouldn’t have to send out cryptic social media posts to communicate with his “billionaire friends.”
Although, she was actually correct that it was not an original idea, that same groundless assertion had in fact become pretty cliche among the left-wing media. However, she continued:
The other theory is from James Carville, which I think is interesting, that- he wants to stoke such instability and chaos to consolidate power for himself so that people start to really go nuts, which we're starting to.
“No, we’re not,” Whoopi Goldberg cut in:
BEHAR: Well, people are starting to get mad.
GOLDBERG: Well, that's good. You want them to get mad.
BEHAR: Yeah, yeah. But how- how mad will people get? And how broke will people get? And how many jobs will be lost? And then he can- he can say, ‘Well, there's too much chaos, and now we're going to have martial law in this country,” and he becomes a dictator. I mean- I don't know- that may be out- out of the- bounds.
Many people would have thought that if ABC News wanted to be regarded as a place of reputable journalism, hurling wild, fabricated accusations that the sitting president was scheming to destroy the nation he had been elected to lead was indeed out of bounds.
Goldberg didn’t seem to think so, though. “Anything is possible,” she assented.
“So as a- just as a- somebody watching,” Behar concluded, “that’s what I see.”
Granted, what she saw was wild conjecture that she had just made up on the spot, but apparently that wasn’t an obstacle to blurting it out for the world to hear, if it fit the favored storyline.
To view the full transcript, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
04/09/2025
11:04 AM(...)
JOY BEHAR: Well, first of all, in order to kiss his ass, you have to get Mike Johnson out of the way-
[LAUGHTER]
BEHAR: -That's number one. Number two, what is his exact- plan? Is what I want to know.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yes.
BEHAR: I was home- I had a cold yesterday- so I was home watching everything.
And I'm thinking, ‘He's trying to destroy the country. Now, why is he doing that?’ Just as a person in the- in the audience- like- watching this.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
BEHAR: So, there's a couple of theories-
GOLDBERGi: Yes, and the-
BEHAR: -Like, what's -- first of all- he- if he tanks the entire- what do you call it-
HOSTIN: Um- Economy? Stock market?.
BEHAR: -The stock market-
GOLDBERG: -The stock market, then what happens?
BEHAR: -Then all his billionaire friends can swoop in and buy everything low-
HOSTIN: -Low-
BEHAR: -That's not an original idea. That's- Hakeem Jeffries said that.
HOSTIN: Yeah.
BEHAR: And where I- and the other thing- and in fact- today, on truth social, he wrote- Trump wrote, ‘A great time to buy.’ Hmm.
HOSTIN: Ah.
BEHAR: The other theory is from James Carville, which I think is interesting, that- he wants to stoke such instability and chaos to consolidate power for himself-
HOSTIN: Uh-huh?
BEHAR: -so that people start to really go nuts, which we're starting to-
GOLDBERG: No, we're not.
BEHAR: Well, people are starting to get mad.
GOLDBERG: Well, that's good. You want them to get mad.
BEHAR: Yeah, yeah. But how- how mad will people get? And how broke will people get? and how many jobs will be lost?
And then he can- he can say, ‘Well, there's too much chaos, and now we're going to have martial law in this country,” and he becomes a dictator. I mean- I don't know- that may be out- out of the- bounds-
GOLDBERG: Anything is possible.
BEHAR: -But it's possible.
GOLDBERG: Yeah.
BEHAR: So as a- just as a- somebody watching that’s what I see.
(...)
