Opinion | Maggie Haberman on What an Unleashed Trump Might Do
This week, I released an audio essay on Donald Trump.And in a way, it was about Donald Trump’s mind and the peculiar ways in which it works, the degree to which he moves through the world without inhibition and the ways in which that is potentially worsening as he gets older.
But more than that, it was about the relationship between Trump and the people and institutions that surround him.And the basic thesis of my piece is that Trump has always been a remarkably disinhibited human being.But in his presidency, he was surrounded by people and institutions that inhibited his worst impulses.
He governed, in a way, in coalition with the Republican Party he did not yet fully control.His White House was full of factions, full of people who did not agree with him, who were serving there in part out of duty, in part out of a belief that maybe he would not be as bad as he feared he would be.
And in many, many, many, many cases, things that Donald Trump wanted to do, he was not allowed to do.But much of that will be different if Trump wins again.So I want to talk about Trump, about the people and processes and institutions that surround him with someone who knows him much better than I do.Maggie Haberman is a senior political reporter at The Times, and she’s the author of the great book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” And she was kind enough in a very, very busy season to sit down with me.Note: This conversation was taped before Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly went on the record saying that Trump meets the definition of a fascist and confirming that the former president made admiring statements about Hitler.This is an edited excerpt from our conversation for my podcast.
For the full conversation, watch the video above or listen to “The Ezra Klein Show.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If y...