Haberman: Trump Is A “Sui Generis” Figure, His Celebrity Status Allows Him To Be Held To A Different Standard
“Regime Change” authors Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan discuss their book with CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Tuesday.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: Donald Trump is a sui generis figure, and that is part of what we write about in the book. I mean, the comeback that he made in 2024, it is hard to see anybody else doing that, Kasie, and you’ve covered him for a long time as well. It isn’t just because of various things that are his political superpower, the main one being his shamelessness. He simply refuses to acknowledge anything. He would not – Graham Platner – I mean, to Jonathan’s point about how mini-Trumps tend not to be able to do it, Platner did try, and he had a cohort of allies who were attacking anybody who raised questions about him. But yesterday, given the seriousness of the allegations of sexual assault, he now is saying he’s reflecting, and it’s not clear what he’s doing. Trump’s never done that. He’s done sort of a version of like almost a hostage-tape apology for the Access Hollywood tape in 2016. He did a very weird pseudo-apology for birtherism. And then I can’t really think of anything. Around January 6th, we know that he, you know, protested having to say anything that was remotely apologetic about it. So that has helped him. He also does not get held to the same standard by voters because voters knew him as a celebrity for decades, and so that is just different.
