Vermilion wrote:I'd rather live in Luton.
D’Antonio: Those early influences are essential, and I also think it’s correct that he has been conducting his entire life as a vanity show, and he’s been rewarded, most recently since his reality TV show, by ever-greater public interest in him. This is a guy who is a president-elect who describes himself as a ratings machine, which is an absolutely absurd thing for a president to be reflecting on, but that matters to him.
But one thing I think that we have overlooked as we see Trump trying to delegitimize others is what I suspect is a feeling he has inside that nothing he’s ever achieved himself has ever been legitimate. This is a person who has never known whether anybody wants to be around him because he’s a person they want to be around or they want to be around his money. And since he’s promoted himself as this glamorous, incredibly wealthy person, that’s the draw he’s always given. So he doesn’t know if he has any legitimate relationships outside of his family, and that’s why he emphasizes family. … He’s always kind of gaming the system—not, in my view, winning on the merits. And even his election was with almost 3 million fewer votes than his opponent. So he has this deep fear that he is himself not a legitimate president, and I think that’s why he goes to such great lengths to delegitimize even the intelligence community, which is the president’s key resource in security, and he’s going to do this demeaning and delegitimizing behavior rather than accept what they have to tell him.
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O’Brien: Don’t you think it’s kind of ironic that the one person who might be more a defender of democratic institutions is a general that he’s putting in charge of the Pentagon?
Blair: Who’d have thought?
O’Brien: General [James] Mattis is the one person who seems extremely well-read and committed to a sort of well-rounded view of power and how the country works and he could impose some moderating influence on Trump. I think that’s amazing to think that we’re all hoping for that to happen in the person of a general who had to get a waiver to serve in the post.
Kruse: These are people who have been successful in their areas. They have also giant egos. They know a lot, more than he does. Do you think he is going to take their advice?
O’Brien: At the end of the day, the two most powerful people in his White House, other than him, are going to be Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, and they’re going to have the final say on everything. And whatever Gary Cohn or Rex Tillerson or General Mattis or Jeff Sessions or Steve Bannon has to say, it will all end up getting filtered through Javanka.
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Kruse: So, last question. At night, when it’s dark and it’s quiet and he’s not sleeping at the top of Trump Tower, do you think Donald Trump is worried that he’s in over his head?
Blair: Not in the least. No.
D’Antonio: I would say not in the least.
Blair: No, no. He’s like, “This is the best thing that’s ever happened.” He’s won the biggest contest there is. He’s got the world’s attention solid for the next four years.
KKLEIN wrote:Trump tonight, post Valium:
"We have a lot of smart people. I tell you what, one thing we've learned, we have by far the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled."
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