Nicolle Wallace Calls Truth Social Trump’s 'Padded Room'—Here’s Why It Matters

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace joked with fellow MSNBC host Chris Hayes that Truth Social serves as President Donald Trump’s “padded room,” shielding his late-night social media activity from mainstream scrutiny.

Hayes appeared as a guest on the Monday, June 24, 2024 edition of Wallace’s podcast, The Best People. During their conversation, Wallace criticized the media for failing to adequately cover Trump’s extensive social media rants, comparing his posting habits to those of a public figure in entertainment.

“If any actor at the top of their game — he’s president, he’s at the top of our politics — were posting all night, it would be a story in the entertainment press,” Wallace argued. “They would have to cover it, and the political press rarely covers his overnight screeds.”

Hayes responded with a theory about Trump’s 2024 re-election strategy, suggesting that being banned from Twitter and moving to Truth Social played a key role in his victory.

“I have a theory that one of the best things for Trump and one of the things that allowed him to win in 2024 was getting kicked off Twitter and going to Truth Social,” Hayes said. “[Because] you don’t see it. It’s like someone having a psychotic episode where they scream into a pillow.”

Wallace laughed and added, “Truth Social is like his padded room!”

Hayes explained that Trump’s shift to Truth Social removed his social media activity from mainstream visibility, reducing public exposure to his late-night posts.

“I think that when it was on Twitter … when everyone was there, it was like being in a subway car with a person who’s having a breakdown,” Hayes explained. “But then we all moved to a different subway car, and he’s just in there! And I think it helps him. I really do think it helps him.”

Wallace questioned the normalization of Trump’s behavior, asking, “Are our brains already broken? In that the Commander-in-Chief, the guy with his fingers on the codes, posts all night and it’s barely news?”

Hayes responded with a broader reflection on human adaptability.

“I really think this comes down to something super fundamental about us as humans,” Hayes replied. “We’re the only species that can live in the Amazon and the Arctic, and the reason we can do that is we can acclimate to anything.”

“That fundamentally is the issue,” he concluded. “He’s just done it enough that we’ve acclimated.”

The discussion was featured in a segment from The Best People podcast and published by TheWrap on June 24, 2024.