David Brooks: Trump Thinks The Office Of The Presidency Is Not Something That Belongs To The People, But It Belongs To Him
PBS NEWSHOUR: New York Times columnists David Brooks and Jamelle Bouie join Geoff Bennett to discuss the week in politics, including what a weak jobs report says about the U.S. economy, President Trump’s push to control the Federal Reserve and Trump’s War Department rebranding at the Pentagon.
GEOFF BENNETT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Well, say more about that, this notion that the president is treating independent economic bodies as tools of political strategy, rather than tools of technocratic governance. DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I mean, he’s a personalist. He thinks the office of the presidency is not something that belongs to the American people, but it belongs to him. And this has been a pretty consistent theme, in fact, amazingly consistent theme, throughout his entire administration. And we relied on the idea that some things are sacred, some things you just don’t do. There are lines. We all have these – like, in journalism, we’re not going to be journalists and also run for office as a Democrat and Republican. We’re just not going to do that. There’s a line. And the fact that they didn’t – weren’t intuitively and instinctively appalled by the idea of crossing that line shows that just the norm has gone away.
