asking. you know pretty shocking to hear the republican house intelligence committee chairman call the president of the united states a neophyte. and he s echoing that argument from trump supporters during the campaign that the press took him literally but not seriously and his supporters took him seriously but not literally. as a way of explaining away his more outrageous comments. look, the president of the united states needs to be taken literally. it is the most powerful office in the world. you know, the words of the president as a saying goes, can move markets and send armies marching. i think it is pretty clear, if you look at public opinion, that the biggest headwind facing donald trump now, the reason why his approval rating is so much lower known president at this point in their presidency is not primarily about his agenda. not enough as happened on his agenda. starting to. not enough. what s happened is there are many americans who have doubts, had doubts on elect
president trump said he decided to hold a surprise news conference today to take his message straight to the american people and what a message it was. david axelrod, what did you think? well, i think that in certain ways it was a surreal performance, but not in the context of donald trump. it was a surreal performance for a president. but it was very consistent with the donald trump we saw during the campaign, and he seemed to, you know, be reveling and playing that role. the question is, is it consonant with the office of the presidency, the responsibilities of the presidency. i think that s the question that s troubling a lot of people tonight. what do you think? is it? no. i think that i ve always said what you say as president can send armies marching, markets tumbling, and facts do matter, and, you know, all of these things seem not to be impactful on him. and so i think it s going to put