Trump tells OAN: ‘the [MAGA] movement is very strong and it’s getting stronger’

As the Republican party faces turmoil, split between the establishment GOP and the MAGA wing of the party, Trump was asked about the future of the movement he has been so integrally part of.

"The whole conservative movement is going on at a very rapid clip," he said, "If you look at the last election we won so much."

"You look at what's going on with the House," he said, noting that "Georgia's Senate races should have been easily won."

He said that the reason there was such a surge of conservatives in the House during the 2020 general election, that brought more Republican representatives into congress than people thought possible, was "only because we had a very strong ticket at the very very top."

"We got almost 75 million votes," he said, "the movement is very strong and it's getting stronger." Trump noted that "we need strong leadership in the senate and we need strong leadership in the house."

On Tuesday, Trump issued a statement admonishing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying that "Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country," and threatening to work hard to primary GOP rivals who don't back the MAGA wing.

He said in the statement that "The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political 'leaders' like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm."

Trump was asked about the future of conservative media, and he replied "The future is great but there's not any one person that can replace Rush," saying that he didn't think 10 people could replace him.

Trump said he'd spoken to Sean Hannity, as well as others in conservative media, about the future of the form. "Your ratings are fantastic," he told the OANN host.

"Everyone understands that Rush is someone not just one person can replace," he said.

Trump spoke about his friendship with Rush Limbaugh, who died from lung cancer at the age of 70 on Wednesday, and giving Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was a great honor to the radio host. It was unconventional for Trump to give the award at the State of the Union address in 2020.

"The Republican were going wild and the Democrats weren't, but everyone in that room respected Rush."

"His audience was unlike anything there is," Trump said, "it's something that's just massive... He did something that very few people could do, he would just talk... that's not easy to do."

"He would just talk for two hours, three hours, and everybody would be listening and it was very unusual... You knew where he stood just by listening to the show," Trump said.

He said that Limbaugh was intent on surviving through the election, and that he and Limbaugh shared a perspective on the election results. "He fought very hard to make it through the election, he was very, very disappointed with what happened and had very strong opinions on it, like I do, like many people do, frankly."

"He made it through easily, he lived longer than people would have thought, he was tough, he was a great man, but he was tough."

Trump said that Limbaugh "was a very strong guy, a lot of people won't know that... we won't talk about scores... We played for a while, I got to know him when he was very healthy... I used to call him the bull" because he was such a powerhouse.