One of the reasons I can’t watch reality TV, or even fictional shows like “The Office” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” is that I am painfully sensitive to awkward
situations, literally squirming in my seat until I just have to get up and leave the room.
So reading the transcript of the meeting between GOP front-runner Donald Trump and the editors of
The Washington Post was sort of a donkey ride through hell for me – the most cringe-inducing, talking-in-circles, bald-faced-lying, marching-band-getting-run-over-by-a-fire truck
hot mess of awfulness I can remember subjecting myself to in recent memory.
Let’s start with the fact that the WaPo editorial board obviously does not like Trump, because,
well, that’s what he does. Right off the bat, he notes, “I’ve been treated very, very badly by The Washington Post.” But he also points out that he is now a neighbor,
as he has a new building opening up not far from the newspaper’s offices.
On that subject, since the editors didn’t ask, “it’s under budget, even though we’ve
increased the quality of the finishes substantially, marble finishes, very high quality of marble, so we’re under budget and ahead of schedule.” But don’t go in there expecting a
finished product: “It’s still a little bit rough – as an example, a lot of the marble surfaces all have sheet-rock covering, and plywood covering on them…”
Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, The Washington Post’s “incredible hatred” for him. But anyway, they’re neighbors, so here he is because he’s a
nice guy, a good guy who really just wants good things for the country, and maybe they can work something out.
Foreign policy? He has five advisors who have names, and as for who was a good
secretary of state, he liked George Schultz. But “I think your last secretary of state and your current secretary of state have not done much. I think John Kerry’s deal with Iran is one of
the worst things that I’ve ever seen negotiated of any kind. It’s just a horrible giveaway.”
Anyway, foreign policy is kind of not his main focus.
“I do think
it’s a different world today, and I don’t think we should be nation building anymore. I think it’s proven not to work. And we have a different country than we did then. You know, we
have $19 trillion in debt. We’re sitting probably on a bubble and, you know, it’s a bubble that if it breaks is going to be very nasty.”
What kind of bubble? The big
kind!
Police discrimination against African-Americans may be a problem – he read about it – but also maybe not, because he read about that, too. Absolutely there are riots, no
question: “St. Louis, Ferguson, Oakland, it could have been much worse over the summer. And it will probably be worse this summer… So, you know, I know the outer world exists, and
I’ll be very cognizant of that, but at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially in the inner cities.”
What would he do for the inner cites?
“I’d create economic zones. I’d create incentives for companies to move in. Jobs are so important. There are no jobs. There are none.”
Libel laws absolutely need to
change, too, because people say a lot of unfair and wrong things about Trump, and there should be consequences.
“They should at least try to get it right. And if they don’t do a
retraction, they should, they should you know have a form of a trial. I don’t want to impede free press, by the way. The last thing I would want to do is that.” Would he expand prior
restraints against publications?
“No, I would just say this. All I want is fairness. So unfair. I have stories, and you have no recourse, you have no recourse whatsoever because the laws
are really impotent.” Yes, but what would he do specifically? “I would just loosen them up.”
And what does that mean? “I’d have to get my lawyers in to tell you,
but I would loosen them up. I would loosen them up.”