this has been a crisis that has been coming for a long time. the republican party promised in 2010 if they got control of congress again after botching it so badly during the bush years, it would be different. they took a $155 billion surplus in 2001 and turned intiet a $1 trillion deficit and they doubled the national debt. barack obama then doubled the national debt. donald trump, though, is spending money and in spieling up deficits at rates we just haven t seen. richard haass, not only do you talk about making the perfect elk kabob, but you warn about
join can us now, the president of the council on foreign relations and terror of the book a world in disarray. also with us, kasie d.c., kasie hunt. we ll get to them in a moment. they ve got questions and reactions for bob. but first, bob woodward. i want to read for you from david ignatius s article in the washington post and it s entitled what a baby in which he writes in part about takeaways from your new book. only a man who is deep by worried about his own strength would talk as much as donald trump does about the danger of appearing weak. woodward s recounting of trump s conversations is a study in character of lack of it. the president s vanity, pettiness and meanness of spirit were evident already in his
i think think that it s very important to understand when somebody is elected president of the united states, there is a self-validation that takes place. oh, dear lord, yes. yes and, oh, wow, i won. only a few people get elected president. in trump s case, where he defied the party and all the rules and no previous political office, so there is that sense of i know best, not just some of the time, but always. most presidents have that when they walk through the gates. they think they re the smartest people in the world and they re the first people the crack the code. this president, though, has that in spades. i was going to ask you what donald trump s friends thought about his transformation, but he
each one is different and unique. some similarities, some differences. i think the key in examining trump is actually what will he do when people present him with facts? for instance, it sounds a little esoteric, but the world trade organization, which the united states is a member of, very important, allows us to file complaints of unfair trade practices. and there s a meeting in the oval office and the president says, well, the world trade organization is the worst organization ever. we lose all of our cases. and they present data pardon? i didn t know we actually whip most of our cases there. yeah. like 85.7% of them. not just 85%, but 85.7%.
and, you know, the best thing that donald trump obviously could do for republicans running right now is stop tweeting very strange tweets about the various investigations and about hillary clinton and be to borrow a term that has that he s employed be a little bit more presidential. i think just a little bit of quiet might actually help. and that s of course what gary cohen was trying to tell him to do. willie, of course, as you know most of my political theories go back to johnny carson. carson who of course said you win in central time zone, but also carson understood he went into people s bedrooms every night and if he was too shrill, if he had an edge at some point they would just become exhausted. i ve seen that with presidents, too. every president has a sell by date, but we ll tell you a lot of my friends in pensacola that still would vote for donald