• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, August 3, 2017

It’s not often that one publication can razz another using its own reporting.

But that’s what Politico seems to have accomplished, simply by posting the unpublished remnants of The Wall Street Journal’s interview with President Trump on July 25. Some of which turned out to be more informative than the brief excerpts the newspaper shared with the public in its original story.

Politico reporters Hadas Gold and Josh Dawsey posted the full transcript on Tuesday, apparently after obtaining a leaked version from within the WSJ newsroom. That leak violated a directive from Matt, Murray, WSJ deputy editor-in-chief, not to publicize the transcript, as this would be a “breach of trust.”

The interview with Trump, conducted by WSJ editor-in-chief Gerald Baker, Murray and several other WSJ reporters in the Oval Office, covered a wide range of topics. The included the unsuccessful attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, then in the late stages of negotiation; his controversial address to the Boy Scouts of America; and his prospects for reelection in 2020.

A WSJ spokesperson defended the newspaper’s coverage of the interview, telling Politico that “it produced multiple, newsworthy articles. We published the noteworthy excerpts from the interview. We saw no reason to publish the crosstalk that inevitably accompanies any conversation.”

Predictably, some left-leaning media outlets have seized on parts of the full transcript as proof the WSJ’s editorial leaders are somehow chummy with Trump. But the evidence here is actually fairly thin.

The news that a WSJ editor has hobnobbed with Ivanka Trump in the Hamptons isn’t exactly shocking. (Trump supporters may find it suspiciously elitist behavior.)

Still, the full transcript does provide some interesting details on more substantive topics that still didn’t make it into the original WSJ piece.

For example, Trump was forthcoming about his policy priorities and the order in which he wants to pursue them, as well as the strategic thinking behind his efforts to stimulate bipartisanship: “We hope to get taxes and then infrastructure. And then I’m going to do a very big — we’re doing very big trade deals, and we’re looking forward to that… Well, infrastructure, I’ll actually have bipartisan support. I can use infrastructure to carry other things along. So I don’t want to waste it at the beginning, if that makes sense.”

Inevitably some statements are pure Trump triumphalism — the kind that is now quite familiar. For example, his claim that “I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful.” 

But even this minor detail gives a spin counter to media coverage of the event, which focused on the supposedly “uncomfortable” reactions of Boy Scout leaders.

Some of the most interesting exchanges gave Trump’s insight into the strategic missteps of the Clinton campaign, which he believes failed to actually present a positive message, despite pillorying him for his “negative” tone.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of negative ads. And when people went into the voter booth, they didn’t know what she stood for. I always said that. I said if I can take this onslaught personally, it’s going to be a great thing because nobody knew what she stood for,” Trump noted.

And despite gibes about his amateurism, there is no question that Trump, like any seasoned politician, already has his eye on the next election, boasting: “Every indication is that in every one of our swing states, we’re substantially up, like Ohio.”