There is no love lost between former President Donald Trump and The New York Times, which Trump has called the foremost progenitor of “fake news.”
It is not surprising that New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” did not cast the former president in a positive light.
According to an excerpt from Haberman’s new book, which was published in The Atlantic over the weekend, Trump reportedly said to one of his aides after an interview with Haberman: “I love being with her, she’s like my psychiatrist.”
Haberman, who went to some lengths to include the reported Trump comment in her book, writes that it was a “meaningless line, almost certainly intended to flatter.”
Haberman continued: “The reality is that he treats everyone like they are his psychiatrists — reporters, government aides, and members of Congress, friends and pseudo-friends and rally attendees and White House staff and customers.”
Haberman’s book on Trump cites no political, military, or economic accomplishments by the former president, but rather presents Trump as a narcissistic man-boy suffering from arrested development:
Haberman writes that Trump surrounds himself with people to “present a chance for him to vent or test reactions or gauge how his statements are playing or discover how he is feeling.”
Haberman presents Trump as a loose cannon, noting “there was no use in trying to gauge Trump’s thinking,” according to the New York Post.
“I spent the four years of his presidency getting asked by people to decipher why he was doing what he was doing, but the truth is, ultimately, almost no one really knows him,” Haberman wrote.
“Some know him better than others, but he is often simply, purely opaque, permitting people to read meaning and depth into every action, no matter how empty they might be.”
Haberman quotes Trump’s use of unflattering language when depicting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s leadership.
Haberman also notes concerns about Trump being “too old” to serve as president, but does not register the same concerns about President Joe Biden who is three years older than Trump.
Some suggest Haberman’s motive in writing the book was to slander Trump (making it difficult for the former president to run for office in 2024) and to present the GOP as rife with division.
Haberman’s book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” is published by Penguin Press and joins other hard-hitting Penguin-published exposés such as “The Book of Witches,” “The Book of the Undead,” “The Book of Mermaids” and “The Book of Vampire Stories.”
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