On Friday, Donald Trump talked foreign policy for nearly two hours with David Sanger and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. There’s not much point in reading it. It’s just Trump’s usual incoherent babble in expanded form. The only thing it demonstrates is that he can pretty much talk forever no matter how little he knows about something.
But here’s an interesting little factlet. Trump addressed the reporters individually by name 26 times during the interview. Here’s the scorecard: Sanger 23, Haberman 3. And one of Haberman’s three was this:
And — I’d love to ask David, Maggie, if he’s a little surprised at how well I’ve done. You know, we’ve knocked out a lot. We’re down to the leftovers now, from the way I look at it. I call them the leftovers.
In this case, Haberman asks Trump a question, and Trump responds first by addressing Sanger, and then telling Haberman that he really wants to ask if Sanger is surprised at how brilliant his foreign policy knowledge is. The transcript notes that this was met by laughter, and I can only imagine just what kind of laughter it was.
Anyway, take this for what it’s worth. Trump spent the entire interview practically slobbering over Sanger. Haberman might as well have been nonexistent for all the attention she got and the number of times Trump interrupted her to turn his attention back to Sanger. You may draw your own conclusions.
