Dr. Phil warns Trump in sit-down interview: 'Revenge and retribution' is 'not what voters want'

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has made grievance and revenge a prominent feature of his 2024 campaign, telling his supporters, "I am your retribution." And he has threatened to use the federal government against his political opponents if he defeats President Joe Biden in November and returns to the White House in January 2025.

But television host Dr. Phil McGraw, during an early June appearance on CNN, told host Abby Philip that he has warned Trump that an emphasis on revenge doesn't serve him well as a candidate.

"If he continues to talk about retribution, revenge," the 73-year-old McGraw told Philip, "then (voters) are going to have to make a decision. If that's what he is running on, then I think people would say, 'I don't think that that's where I want to place my vote. I hope that's not what he intends to do. I hope it's not what he's going to do."

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McGraw continued, "I think he's made a commitment, during the interview that I did with him, that that's not what he's going to do. And I hope, as he moves further along and hears more voices like mine — voices like yours, that say, 'That's not what we want, that's not what we need' — I think he'll get the message that look, nobody wants that. That's running your agenda, not our agenda. And that's what we need to say to all of these candidates, including Donald Trump."

Philip and McGraw also discussed the former president's hush money/falsified business records trial, which found a Manhattan jury convicting him on 34 criminal counts.

When the CNN host noted that members of Trump's family didn't have a large presence at the trial, McGraw responded, "He admitted that this is tough on them and is taking a toll. I asked him, straight up: Have you considered the fact that this is not worth it? That the price that your family has to pay for all the blowback, all of the criticism and all of the disruption on them — is there a point at which it's just not worth it?.... And he says he does think about it."

McGraw added, "It's very difficult to watch them go through this sometimes. He's convinced that they want him to continue on."

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