Understanding Donald Trump

the United States of America has never seen a presidential election quite like the one that just ended or a president-elect quite like the one who's about to take office here to make sweet sense of it all one of the nation's finest political reporters the Washington Post's Robert Costa on uncommon knowledge now welcome to uncommon knowledge I'm Peter Robinson Robert Costa grew up in Yardley Pennsylvania just up the Delaware from Philadelphia he earned his bachelor's degree in American Studies at Notre Dame and a master's degree in politics at Cambridge mr. Costa has worked at The Wall Street Journal and at National Review and three years ago he joined the Washington Post he appears frequently on television so frequently on television that the week after the election I think I caught you on Charlie Rose three nights in a row could have been more in the words of one media critic mr. Costa is Omni present and to prove it he's here Bob welcome great to be here Bob Costas in the Washington Post in early October I am quoting something that you published just two months ago as we record this quote the Republican Party tumbled toward Anarchy Monday over its presidential nominee after Friday's publication of a 2005 video showing him bragging about sexual assault Clinton surged to an 11 percentage point lead Trump ally William J Bennett was pained as he spoke about the nominee it's a shame a crying shame but he can't win then it said he should step down close quote just two months ago what happened get us from that moment to election night why I remember filing that exact story on Friday night and the person who broke that story David Ferran thought was sitting right next to me as he broke it in the Washington Post newsroom I think the most important story is the story I published the day after so I go into the newsroom on Saturday after the story breaks on Friday sent affrighted go ahead break said of Friday go into Saturday it's an empty newsroom and I'm thinking to myself the whole party's calling me and saying Trump's gotta get out it's over this tape is horrible and I and Trump's from what I hear up in Trump Tower watching television alone in his apartment and so I call him up I call up Trump the day after the tape breaks and I get him on his cell phone immediately and I say well are you watching TV he's watching TV and I said are you gonna quit the race because he'd read the story he'd read other every other story and he said Casta I will never withdraw I will never quit he started talking about life and I put us all in the Sunday paper about how he has been through so much in his business in his career in his life personal life that he's not going to quit and so that was ended up being the Sunday front I will never withdraw from the cell phone of Donald Trump to the Washington Post on Saturday afternoon and I think it really underscored to me his defiance in spite of everything swirling around him everyone thought he would lose thought it was over you just turned 31 you've known Donald Trump for five or six years how did you a cub reporter in his mid-20s get to know Donald Trump how did it come about well before I joined the post as he said I was at National Review right and when Trump was doing the birther episode and pursue of whatever he was doing we covered it a little bit we were not we were skeptical of what he was doing that national review but we covered it when he was flirting with a presidential run we covered it and we and I took it seriously because I saw especially post president george w bush this vacuum in the republican party i'm not an academic and on an expert but I saw this vacuum of power I saw a Republican party that in many ways had splintered apart and it my own instincts told me that there was an opening possibly for populism and so in Trump this celebrity populist figure even though we didn't have a coherent ideology I thought this is someone I should pay attention to this is someone who actually could rise and I would I benefit not so much by my own acumen or clever scheming as a reporter but not many national reporters covering politics wanted to talk to Trump he had flirted with politics before it was seen as an not very serious pursuit but I always kept it on my on my stove in a sense as a reporter saying this is something that could grow could become something and so how did you actually get to know him he was very easy to get to know it wasn't that hard were you in New York or Washington which I was in Washington at the time okay but I really started to cover Trump closely in 2013 and he had decided to go to Iowa and it got very little coverage it was laughed at and but I spoke to him in 2013 and I put a story in Ash review he can go still find it online Trump thinks about 2016 bid heads to Iowa even an Astra view their discussions then in 2013 should we actually publish this but I talked to Trump at length in 2013 and he was different than the Trump I had encountered in 2011 when 2011 and he was thinking about running for president it was clearly a playful flirtation it was not that serious in 2013 I saw him in a different way thinking about the country falling apart in his eyes and thought the country was broken he thought the political class was out of touch and it just seemed more real to me compared to what I had seen in 2011 so Donald Trump in 2013 struck you Bob Kosta as a serious man and how to and he was easy to reach well he's developed a relationship the ability to call him on this well who knows after now the National Security Agency might be monitoring your calls but so you could walk up to him you could get to know do you feel you got to know it your professional your rapport but did you get to know him sure and he someone who likes to talk and he was easy to get in touch with because reporter can call his assistant rona at Trump Tower Rona Graff she's been with him forever and he's usually had his office he doesn't use a computer doesn't use email he's someone who loves the phone loves to talk on the phone usually puts it on speaker enjoys just talking being in his office on the 26th floor looking out over Central Park and having conversations and sometimes I would call me would be for 5-10 minutes it'd be for half an hour and I would try to get minor scoops and what he was up to and it really just kind of built as a reporter source relationship up until early 2015 when I said to myself and I told my editors this is very serious he's thinking about running for president and we put it on the front page and you did not you'd not even sure how to frame the question exactly you did not condescend to him as you talk to him you did not find yourself saying in the back of your mind how did this guy find himself on the 26th floor of a building he built where's the business mind here the sense of intelligence was obvious to you you know gap between your sense of the man you were talking to and what he seemed to have accomplished I was just curious I one thing I have written on my desk at the Washington Post is assume nothing because I sometimes when I was growing up and I was reading different things I always felt like the reporters were assuming different things about political figures in fact what another camp candidate I've gotten along with as a reporter in terms of having an ability to have a conversation with them and talking to as Bernie Sanders it's because I think the same approach I take the Trump is I want to learn about these people I want to get inside of their world share more information be tough and be aggressive but also sometimes the job is the reporters to listen to see what's going on and to share it and I've done that with almost everyone I've covered I tried to at least okay so solve a puzzle for us he has been a New Yorker all his life he attended an Ivy League university University of Pennsylvania in your homestay he's a billionaire he was born into a wealthy family and he is now a billionaire and yet Donald Trump connected with working people in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Michigan enough to turn those three states and give him the presidency how could this rich Ivy Leaguer do that well whenever I get this question for people I usually say have you ever watched The Apprentice no that's and that tells you a lot most people haven't watched The Apprentice if they're a part of a certain educated Washington California and it was a show that see Koster you don't you don't condescend to Trump but you're condescending to Robinson I'm not kind of trying to kind of send my point is the reason I say have you watched The Apprentice is not the kind of send but the apprentice report was revealing right of how someone who had a blue-collar vernacular but a billionaire lifestyle could actually appeal to a large slice of the country and I used to not I didn't watch The Apprentice I did better okay I'm off the hook right I didn't watch it I wasn't interested I don't like reality television but when I started paying attention Trump I started watch a few episodes I said oh I get what he's up to I mean he presented himself as an everyman kind of he was the billionaire how a blue-collar guy would be if he had a billion dollars right have the gold and he was so self-assertive he was confident he was he had swagger it was an active performance it was not just the money and so I always tried to say if you don't understand Trump read his books but also watch The Apprentice because that was that laid the foundation for the public persona that we saw in 2016 all right two quotations Bob a CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl on Charlie Rose's show she's this is a couple of weeks ago right after the election she's discussing with Charlie Rose her 60 Minutes interview with Trump quote I saw a man who was having the weight of what he's getting into hitting him he's the leader of the free world and there's no question that he's feeling it no question close quote that's one here's to David Remnick in The New Yorker and now he's reporting on the president elects meeting with media November 22nd quote Trump showed no signs of having been sobered or changed by his elevation to the country's highest office rather said one attendee he is the same blustering bluffing blowhard as he was during the campaign close quote what is the president elects state of mind well the image that still sticks with me is on election night that facia his when he came out to the podium that was an emotional Trump and I've never seen I've never seen that face from Donald Trump and the years knowing him until I saw him on election night he was so on I don't know if the word is humble because I don't know what's inside of his head but he was moved by the moment and he's never seen him truly moved by anything but he was moved by that his face was welled up with emotion but he's still Trump I think REM Nix onto something I think when he brought the network executives in after the election he gave it right to their face he hasn't care for them he doesn't feel like he needs them and he had no remorse in saying that okay so that's the president-elect I'd like to ask what the people around him tell us about what we're all in for during the Trump administration your colleagues Phillip Rucker Ruger Helmut Hocker Philip Rucker and Mike Devon diminisher okay Philip rocker Mike de Bono's in the post they're reporting on the president elects decision to nominate retired Marine general John Kelly a Secretary of Homeland Security and this is after he's chosen Lieutenant General Mike Flynn as national security adviser and general Marine Corps General James Madison area defense quote Trump's choice of Kelly has intensified worries among some members of Congress and national security experts that the new administration's policies may be shaped disproportionately by military commanders close quote one two three generals named another couple we hear your keys are under consideration what's with Donald Trump and generals well he's always had a fascination with the military and it goes back to his time at New York military academy he sent there as a teenager he doesn't fight in Vietnam is it upstate where is that located like yeah it's upstate from New York City and he loves it at New York military academy he loves the culture there he was a successful student in terms of doing the different activities based on all the testimony from his former classmates got good grades good athlete and he loved the lifestyle did not go to military school for college or enter the military but he's always had an appreciation for strong men for the toughness one of the thing that's really telling we talks about general mattis he uses the nickname mad dog and people in Trump's inner circle tell me he's always saying I just love Mad Dog Mad Dog I think that nickname actually may have helped in a strange way and maybe an untold way that Trump wants people around him who project what he thinks is military style leadership which is Authority leadership and I'm just not surprised at all he's not thinking about the worry or the concern of too many generals around okay so let's stick with them James Mad Dog Madison Donald Trump conciliatory toward Potence Russia James Madison cerned about Russian policies in Syria Ukraine and the Baltics and on the record as saying so Donald Trump determined to cancel Obama's nuclear deal with Iran James Madison intent again on the record as saying so making that deal work so what does that tell us about Donald Trump Secretary of Defense is one of the three or four most important jobs in the cabinet and Trump has I mean my feeling you know Donald Trump but my feeling just looking at him on camera when James Madison's with him he's enjoying himself he likes James Matt really likes him does this mean policy doesn't matter to Trump does it mean that Jim James Madison already giving him something of an education that he's what what does it mean what does this tell us what Trump doesn't have a core ideology a lot of these issues and he has instincts but he's willing to be convinced and I heard when he spoke with mattis when he spoken with different secretary state candidates he's open to conversations about the issues now that may make some people alarmed but others see Trump a president who's going to be willing to bring in a lot of different opinions and hear them out on foreign policy he does not have a coherent foreign policy that he wants to make a doctrine yes so okay I'm trying to we're all I think we all are trying to figure out how to think about Donald Trump and is that you mentioned a moment ago that The Apprentice is an important part of understanding the public persona in his approach to policy what do we think of do we think of the businessman who's been who in the middle phase of his career built one big building in Manhattan after another brings in the architect he's not an architect he doesn't know wait loads in which meet you but he has an instinct what he likes he wants something that makes a statement and okay architect let's talk that is that the approach I think so in other words he understands expertise he has his instincts but he's willing to modify specific decisions in the presence of expertise he's very willing to delegate decks to experts I think a key example to look at is Trump's trip to Mexico during the campaign hatched in part thanks to Jared Kushner son-in-law Steve ban and his chief strategist and a lot of that trip was about the feeder of politics in the feeder of foreign policy and I hear both on domestic policy when he's talking with congressional leaders and on foreign policy Trump wants things that are fast paced he doesn't want to be seen as a president who's slow acting he also wants to be at the center of decisions so on a form on a foreign policy issue like Russia if he's making a trip there he wants to be on the red carpet he wants to fly in with the plane he wants to be meeting with the heads of state but on the policy he's going to listen to mattis and whoever he picks his secretary of state it's about the presentation for Trump you see this throughout his career that brand matters for Trump popularity matters the details are things that can be negotiated okay so no drama Obama is not the model here no he loves Trump loves drama and disruption he thinks drama and disruption equal power got it got it got it and of course in show business they do to a large extent all right and I suppose in real estate there's such a hit large component of real estate in the city of New York that's a political component you have to be famous and wealthy and perceived as okay all right all right this time starting thank you Bob you know you're good at what you do here the inner circle you just mentioned well let's come to Jared Kushner in a moment Steve Bannon whom you've known for a long time Reince Priebus I've met Steve Bannon but not for years I've chatted with Reince Priebus over the phone but I really don't know these guys I don't and yet so I'm layman and I look at them and say wow these are two completely different kinds of human beings how do these people work together there's always going to be some creative tension in that White House but Bannon I think will be creative I think I think Bannon someone who wants to do things and he's Bannon has become really intrigued by global populism baile Pen in France Faraj in England he made sure Faraj met with Trump after the election he sees Trump as linked to something broader in the world this kind of working-class uprising against global elites against globalization and that if anything it's become part of Trump's ideology that he can be combative in populist - nationalist and that can be a way of governing Bannon though has also been strikingly low-key in the transition period hasn't done television interviews has only done a few print interviews he knows that his influence on Trump is having Trump's year and getting and feeding into Trump's populism but Bannon knows he only has so far he can go on some of these fronts you don't see him he entered into this power sharing arrangement with Priebus because he knows organizationally Priebus does have the relationships with Capitol Hill Priebus can be responsible for organizing things and making a lot of personnel decisions but Bannon he recognizes his role and he thinks it's important to be there as a populist hand for Trump but he's not dominating in some kind of unusual way okay the family Trump seems again I'm the layman you know the scene he seems especially close to his daughter Ivanka who is in turn married to Jared Kushner who is in his mid 30s the son of a major real estate family in New York and what are their politics do their politics matter is it one of those instances where they're just concerned for the public image of the father and father how does the family fit into this Jared has been at Trump's side for most of the campaign I was on the Trump's plane several times with Jared and he'd be there sitting right next to Trump guiding Trump there is a quiet man someone who doesn't seek the spotlight Ivanka in many ways could be an informal first lady her politics are more moderate she is been meeting with people like Al Gore on climate change she's the face of the company the future face of the company and so she has a touch for women's issues for the brand of the Trump company I think that will continue Jared's an important person next to trump because Priebus is close to the party and Bandhan is close to the grassroots and has a real creative mind and how he thinks through politics Kushner is liaison for a lot of foreign leaders for people outside in the business community if they don't know Bandhan or Priebus they can come through Jared and Jared has a lot he has time on his hands to build different kinds of relationships and as I cover Trump and I think as people think about the Trump administration it's not so much Bannon versus previous it's the 3ko centric circles of Kushner Bannon and Priebus all around Trump okay let's stick with that for just a moment if you think of inner circles we've got John Kennedy his brother Bobby who me makes Attorney General but they're on the phone with each other every day he's got Ted Sorensen in the White House and what you think here is urbane highly educated and intensely loyal to John Kennedy right then we have Reagan and he has that troika in the first term of ed Meese who is a thorough and principled conservative and Jim Baker who's a deal doer from Texas and then Mike Deaver who's the image guy and understands understands how the cameras should be set up the lights should be set up and so forth and so you get with Reagan you get this feeling that it's a kind of practical approach even to the inner circle he's balancing political forces Baker can deal with Congress Mies can bring me papers that show me what I ought to do it for the politics permit me to do mike is going to make sure everything goes alright on the evening news that night okay so what is this in other words Kennedy loyalty but a certain suavity and Reagan it's practical what does this inner circle tell us about Trump it tells us that there's not going to be a heavy heavy hand around Trump they're going to people if oil tea is important and this is also about balancing the different circles and power circles around Trump but Priebus ban and Kushner are influential but they're not going to be really pushing Trump in a certain direction it means Trump wants to be the decider Trump wants to play these people off of each other at times when he's making decisions bring more people in but he's not going to have someone even like a Jim Baker around him who's really going to push him in a certain direction on certain policies it's Trump being disruptive Trump being unpredictable and having people have different duties okay so we're we're all we'd all better be prepared to remain off balance for for years to come certainly all right good cabinet let me just name names it will tick through this quickly we've already talked about Jim mattis at the Pentagon John Kelly Homeland Security the Department of Education Betsy DeVos comes from a very rich family Michigan and she is a campaigner for charter schools deeply conservative and this brings up another section of power we need to mention yes his vice president pence right okay let's look it was good tell us kind of an island out into himself he has his own conservative circle he has his own aides but he has earned Trump's trust and loyalty and find Priebus and pence together really form a kind of Republican mainstream slash conservative movement group within this Trump administration that has already been working together to get people like Betsy DeVos into education because trumpet be not ideological does not mean he's against having someone with real ideology in there and so DeVoss with all four statements about privatization on different fronts of Education for vouchers Trump's not thinking in policy terms but if Priebus and Pence say this is the kind of person we want in there okay and the same for Jeff Sessions Jeff Sessions is an insider though too is he's a special case he's interesting I was with sessions when he first started to get to know Trump real well in 15 I was at Mobile Alabama sessions went onto the plane first put on the make America great again hat and sessions saw early on that his whole life in Congress he had spent on immigration yes hardline policies not just on illegal immigration but on limiting legal immigration and in Trump II saw someone who's singing his tune and sessions have been on the back bench in a sense in the Senate for a long time and they really connected and he came on pretty early to endorse Trump and he and Rick Dearborn who's been this chief of staff for sessions it's been working very he's a very influential in the transition and making sure sessions types kind of populist conservatives like Stephen Miller or the speechwriter and others are in positions of prominence and so you've got a Betsy DeVos thoroughgoing conservative education she's not going to coddle the teachers unions she's going to take them on you've got Jeff Sessions a thorough conservative at the Department of Justice now tell me about Scott Pruett an Environmental Protection Agency I Oklahoma Attorney General now the now nominated to lead the Environmental Protection agents I mean I was just looking at my inbox after the announcement every environmental group in the country every Democrat it's like it's apocalyptic I'm the argument that he's going to rip apart the department in terms of its regulatory structure and I think that's again an example how Trump it's willing to have conservative ideologues with him in the administration and be this big in part because people like Priebus Bannon and pence in Kushner understand that trumps he needs to give a lot to the right to keep the right with him I don't and Trump's fine Trump's wants to get rid of regulations he just didn't have I don't think when he was running for president he would never talk to me or others maybe he had a plan about what he wanted to do with EPA but he would have talked about he's want to get rid of all these regulations in a broad way and people say oh well Trump doesn't have depth he didn't have a plan true but when the time came to make decisions he's putting in these deeply conservative people so Bob's deeply conservative people is there anything you would like to say in particular to your fellow I shouldn't say your fellow conservatives is your fellow editors at National Review who ran a cover story against Trump to Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard to George we'll all these conservatives who were never Trump errs the hard thing for a lot of people on the right is temperament that's it Trump does not have the temperament in their minds so when I talk to a lot of conservative leaders Republican politicians they can't stand that he tweets I say please that's not the way this pop this government should run that's not the way the president should act and they may be right that everyone has their own case I will see this as a reporter when I'm when I'm out on the campaign trail it's astounding to me how often policy doesn't come up and it's all culture it's all people love the theater of Trump's tweets they don't mind that he curses or has these I think the country's has changed maybe for the worse but it's changed it's a different country and Trump in many ways fits the kind of voters I met all the time okay one more cabinet appointment Steve minuchin Department of the Treasury list he was always with Trump national finance chairman for Trump comes out of the finance world low-key but he was always on the plane with Trump and he was he was defining he was the finance cover this is not somebody 'end Betsy DeVos and you think of dedicated conservative you're not going to say that about Stephen Nugent I don't know enough about minutiae of politics but I will say whenever I've encountered minutiae he's been working with Trump on tax cuts so he's going to have a hand okay well let me ask you one question about Paul I'm gonna come back to Bob cost and Donald Trump in a moment but last question here about policy we have heard Donald Trump say he wants to cut taxes and roll back regulations pro-growth agenda we have also heard Donald Trump talk particularly since the election about a gigantic amount of infrastructure spending and then of course from the get-go there's been a protectionist let's the least call it an impulse because or it he lays down a policy and then walks it back but he's willing to slap tariffs on imports so who's going to show up during these first 100 days the pro-growth tax cutting Donald Trump or the big government spend a lot of money slap tariffs on people protectionist both of them are going to show okay I mean it's a strange situation when I was on Capitol Hill in recent days you have a lot of members say I don't understand he's going to have a trillion dollar or 900 billion dollar infrastructure package and he's also going to do all these tax cuts I mean that's going to put us into deficits in debt and the Trump doesn't Trump not thinking in those terms he wants high growth he wants high employment and with infrastructure the Trump people are making the case privately already this is the way to get the Democrats broken apart and give them what they want you tell a Democratic senator is up for reelection 2018 we're going to put three highways in your state you don't want the highways and infrastructures is pure politics for Trump it's growth and even the wall is a stimulus project if you think about it so you're also going to have tax cuts you can have hardline immigration policy going to have spending it's not a traditional Republican government and at the same time you can have Tom Price and Health and Human Services doing it whole tax credit replacement for the Affordable Care Act and so it Tom Price congressman from Georgia enjoy left out who's devoted the last since Obamacare was enacted as best I can tell from looking at his record the day after Obamacare was enacted this congressman from Georgia began devoting himself to figuring out how to repeal it another instance where Donald Trump is demonstrating seriousness he's named a guy to HHS who really will do all he can to repeal Obamacare sorry yeah no no no no I mean that the the problem from any of these Republican I'm talking to all the time is they can't swallow the fact that they're going to get everything they wanted on tax reform stuff they've been working on for five ten years right but at the same time they're gonna have to swallow a president who's battling companies individually talking about tariffs and trade wars it's hard for them to match these things up but that's that's the reality of the Trump administration and that I've heard economists say well it's alright if he talks about tariffs and it's alright if you if he puts in a few the carrier company puts in a few museums in the Midwest museums to 1950s that won't do that much harm as long as that's not what he really means as long as what he really means is pro-growth but you're telling us he really means it all he does okay and I know Priebus has already been told to make sure there's a list of companies that are shipping jobs overseas on Trump's desk every day really the thing that one thing I've always learned about Donald Trump people think this is sometimes an act for him or that this is play this man our new president loves to fight he loves to fight privately he loves to fight publicly and this idea that he somehow got a retreat from these companies I say study Trump man loves to fight he relishes this idea of fighting companies take keeping the jobs here he probably thinks is gonna win him reelection okay back to you and Donald Trump over the course of this campaign he went through three campaign managers he's up at 3:00 in the morning tweeting he's taking phone calls from Bob caused among others how did you how do you cover this whole upper I'm just one of the nuts and bolts of covering this I guess at your stage because you've known him you just call him is that the way it works how do you do it you want to overdo it it's like anything good you don't to call your friends too much or you want to call your your sources too much I think with Trump I always just say just chill out that's why I tell my colleagues and friends I mean it's this is not it's so easy become overheated cover and Trump he did what now he did this he did that oh my gosh so much is happening you got to just take it easy think through what's happening it's not about being distracted by the tweets cover the tweets if they're newsworthy but always try to think about what's the big picture here what's he really trying to do is it is it populism is it trying to confront a certain Republican or get Democrats rattled just play it push the media around a little bit he's gonna take it day-by-day too often I think the coverage of Trump it's it's aggressive which is great you need to have aggressive coverage of every candidate and you got to give them as much scrutiny as possible but at the same time you have to not become over the top and getting too fussy Jim Ruttenberg in the mediator column in The New York Times quote this is at the midway through the campaign but what this is well before the election if you're a working journalist and you believe that Donald J Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation's worst racist and nationalist tendencies of course who wouldn't that he Kouzes cozies up to anti-american dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes then you have to throw out the textbook of American journalism close quote there he is saying close to the beginning of the campaign throw out the textbook we treat Trump differently how would you grade the media's performance overall and I let me just let's accept you and the what let's accept the Washington Post everybody else I understand Ruttenberg point of view it's not something I have ascribed to I just think it's the job of the reporter to provide people with as much information as possible to let them make the decisions I don't I'm never comfortable I was never comfortable at National Review writing a column ever did never wrote an editorial national view I just personally if always found myself most comfortable as a reporter which is kind of take a mirror up and shine it and let people see what's happening I think the media has had a difficult time not just with Trump but with outsiders in general people from beyond the political class I think Bernie Sanders was treated in the same way as Trump was treated which was for a long time which was never taken seriously it was never treated like a candidate who had an actual shot at the nomination I think that's a mistake I think this idea that if you don't have a certain look or you don't speak in a certain way politically you don't use certain words or vernacular that you're not a national candidate can be national candidates it's a mistake and it's founded on assumptions unpure assumptions and not much data or anything else I think the press we're not the story and we should remember that okay here's a tweet from Donald Trump nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag he retweets this the press responds by goes into a tizzy doesn't he understand the First Amendment is the unaware of Supreme Court jurisprudence there's a famous case that's on and on and on and then a lot of ordinary Americans say you know he's got a point I don't know about the law but you know he's got a point the country needs to be more patriotic Andy Ferguson writing about all this in the Weekly Standard quote with a tweet here and a tweet there Trump is happily driving a wedge between the news media and their intended customers the dawning Trump era is pushing the mainstream press further and further to the margins close quote substitute legacy if you will for mainstream press these are old entities forgive me I have to include the Washington Post here but the New York Times is decades more than a century old these are old entities with specific patterns patterns of thought that you were just taught touching on Trump represents a challenge to their very well I don't know it to their existence but certainly to the way they do business now is that fair to say have they simply is it all just everybody's in a tizzy and we can all calm down and the press can go back to its job and the president will do his job that would be one option the other option is no no things are changing here and the role of the press will be quite different by the end of four years of the Trump administration I think the role the press has already changed so many so few people in my generation in their 20s and 30s aren't reading newspapers they're not necessarily watching the nightly news if everything's on their phone so the technology is changing but in terms of the coverage there's so many more channels out there so many more outlets that you have to earn every reader and viewer and keep them and so I think the legacy media the mainstream media whatever you want to call it our challenge is to make sure we're really reaching our audience and also expanding our audience I think the way to do that is to not look at Andy Ferguson's articles to not become consumed by the tweets what I'm interested in as reporters when did Trump write at why who help them with the tweet what is this is it really just to play the media is it is there something else going on here really try to tell the backstory of what's going on I'm not about the fuss over it I understand there's other people in my business who do that but I understand that what the point is that we're losing our capital and a lot of ways are influenced and I just hope the Washington Post and any other organization that we can can not only just provide information but speak to people from all walks of life about what's happening in the government what's happening in politics and I think that takes investigations and it takes sometimes a tough tone and editorials or in coverage but also you just can't be consumed by a certain worldview or that kind of thing just the people just love to find out new things and have it not shaded too much one way the other couple last questions Steve Bannon and one of the few interviews he's given if we deliver we the Trump administration if we deliver will get 60% of the white vote 40% of the black and Hispanic vote and will govern for 50 years close quote will they deliver that's is it I'm not asking you to write confronts to manage but the question here is do you you're you took Donald Trump seriously before almost anybody else do you feel there is a prospect for one of those very rare moments in American politics 1932 Franklin Roosevelt 1980 Ronald Reagan when something genuinely new is about to happen in American politics when the Republican Party may be given a new life he may be able to put together a new coalition and that what will take place during these four years will have permanent political consequences or it's just some people get tired of him and we'll get back to normal for years I think the former is possible you do I think it's gonna be very difficult I think what bandhans view is and I spoke in a band about this and in Trump is they want the Republican Party to be the working class party and in our view is and that's what Bannon articulated is if the Republicans can become the working class party then what are the Democrats have except kind of the elite and they have some you faculty lounge in that you got the Democratic Party I'm not sure the whole Republican Party is comfortable with this direction I mean McConnell and Ryan are not there for working-class issues but they're not populous in the same way Trump is it's gonna take a lot of political will from Trump talent to an act of legislation that keeps the party an agenda that keeps his party together but also brings new people in and Trump could be easily distracted he could be thin-skinned he can be erratic he's leaving himself in some ways vulnerable on the business front a lot of challenges for Trump but if anyone could break apart the Republican Party and make it into some kind of working-class populist / conservative party it would be Trump because he's not tethered to any certain ideology or worldview okay last question White House briefing room has about 50 seats I think it would used to be 49 seats about 50 seats and those seats are assigned according to the decision of the White House Correspondents Association the incoming administration doesn't even get to decide who sits in those seats so it's the Washington Post has a seat the LA Times says to see the New York Times of course CBS NBC on and on and here we have a president who not only can but does speak to the American people directly by tweeting releasing a youtube video he's gone ages now without a formal press conference and it's beginning to look as though he just doesn't think formal press conferences are necessary well I think Trump would make a mistake if he didn't make I think so this is a well so advice to the next press secretary keep the briefing room I mean as recently as the administration of John Kennedy that was a swimming pool it could move the press back across the old Oh second case out of the White House they could never have a frozen bridge no I think it's a mistake for these administration's I've seen on Capitol Hill if you close up to the press you win short term victories you don't get bothered you control the narrative of whatever you want to call it a little more but in the end you hurt yourself I really as a reporter I think I know people think oh you're just arguing for reporting true but I've never seen it work out for a politician to truly close up to the press Secretary Clinton was pretty close to the press and you know we never really got insights into that and the campaigns and the people around these operations that get too much anti press they become so tightly wound that it just doesn't function as if politics has to have a little looseness to it I think that Trump you may be antagonistic toward the press but where we are the Fourth Estate maybe the legacy media's are dying in some people's view and all this but you can't just say you can't kill the press I mean this is America proper cost of the Washington Post thank you thank you for uncommon knowledge in the Hoover Institution I'm Peter Robinson [Music]

Channel: Hoover Institution

Views: 89,272

Keywords: Trump, Apprentice, General Mattis, Robert Costa, media, Washington Post, journalism, politics, business, president, United States, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus

Id: DYFvuBM-Vms

Length: 40min 53sec (2453 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2017