Susan Glasser: Trump Has The Instincts Of A Natural Authoritarian

is a veteran reporter who worked as foreign policy editor-in-chief, founded Politico magazine, and was Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post. She now has a weekly column in The New Yorker. Please welcome Susan Glasser. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me, I personally requested to have you because I have read almost every column you have written in the last three years for The New Yorker. They are all called letters from Washington. Yes, I'm sorry, I know it's a lot of work. Oh, it's great because what I really like about them is that I don't think there is anyone else who has the extensive journalistic experience and who has the knowledge of what happens under a flourishing autocratic regime because you are one of the bureau chiefs the bosses of the Washington Post's Moscow bureau when Putin was rising to power in the early 2000s and who also understand better than you do the norms that were being lost in our government.

Every week it's, I'm not going to say, it's, it's a happy column you know it's slightly refreshing it's 90% water 10% hemlock it's not that bad but you said you needed a term for the Trump effect that we all feel but have trouble with. name and you asked a friend to help you, who helped you come up with this term? Well, I have a wonderful friend, Costanza, who is German and you know people always joke, there should be some kind of long German word for that, you know, yeah, they usually are, so I. said Costanza, is there a long German word for this kind of illness of Trump's soul?

Yeah, and she said no, but I made one up, so she made up another one and it's the wrong Trump reggae. Schlemazel Schmidt, that second part is good. Smallish Schlemazel deserves what he is. What is basically Yudish? Actually, she wrote there. It sure is a good combination. What does it mean? Well, again, I don't actually speak German. you know, insanity and then smurt is like the disease of the soul, so it's like the insanity of the Trump administration, the disease of the soul. What I like about that is that I have a constant feeling in the kind of gaslighting of America that it's happening along with the people helping. and instigating it is like some kind of spell is trying to be cast on us, like some kind of strange and somewhat abusive spells being cast on us so that we no longer see reality, we are being dragged into their madness when you were watching the rise. of Putin from 2000 to 2004 while you were in Moscow, did this happen?

Well, you know it's interesting, so you wouldn't think there would be an overlapping experience between being in Russia and being in Washington and then adding a Clinton impeachment to these things. They are not supposed to go together in the same sentence certain Vladimir Putin in the first four years did what all would-be

authoritarian

s do what the heir wanted in Turkey consolidate power first what do you do? you go after journalists, they took over independent television, you go after Parliament and make sure it's a pocket parliament, you go after this and you know there are some amazing parallels.

Trump seems to have the

instincts

of a

natural

ly minded

authoritarian

, although of course we have a very different history and institutions and culture thank goodness, no, you've been writing about the new phase of the presidency since the Senate acquittal, who is after Trump's impeachment, is it really any different because my suspicion before this happened was because everything, but if he's not acquitted, the guardrails will be off, but I don't see that the guardrails have ever been up. Is he a different person after acquittal? No, is he behaving differently? Well, that's a great question and actually, I saw you said that before and I thought you knew he was going to challenge me on this, what's the answer?

I went back and looked and we're actually, you know, the frog is slowly boiled, you know that look, I think we're already a little boiled because I think we're slowly getting used to it. Trump doing things now that he would never have attempted to do three years ago when he first took office, two years ago, since he was acquitted, he has attacked Supreme Court justices who went after not only a federal judge in the Roger Stone case, but also the jury forewoman, the prosecutors who recommended the sentence and then resigned, not only did he fire the acting director of National Intelligence because information about Russia was given to members of Congress, he named someone very unqualified for the interim job and then, just this week. has appointed the new Director of National Intelligence to the congressman who was disqualified by the Republicans just a few months ago because he lied on his resume, so the head of National Intelligence will be someone who will not be able to tell the truth about his own record. . so we're used to something that now the Republicans are backing him for the job that they refused to give him just six months ago, it's almost like they don't want to know things right, you know, I don't think you need to talk. to the motives, I mean, I think that's something I've learned in three years of Trumpology, it's like Kremlinology, you don't really have to get inside his head and know if Donald Trump loves Lattimore Putin, just look at the crazy things that they're saying and doing, and that's what I've tried to do is write it on the theory that 20 years from now we'll all be saying if this really happened, I hope so, I hope 20 Years from now we'll have that attitude that not only We're wearing scuba gear in downtown Manhattan, but you raise a good point, who's a good point, that we're the Frog, so we get boiled and get used to some of the most shocking things that happen with the president, How do you maintain your new shock?

Because every once in a while I have to metaphorically stop the car over vomit in a ditch, slap myself in the face, and get back in so I can stay awake at the wheel, how are you shocked? You know it's like watching the solar eclipse, but without glasses on every week it's really hard work. You know, I know that, like most people, you've tuned out. I understand. So if your job is to stare, we forget about all the crazy stuff, even the people whose job it is to pay attention. Remember when Donald Trump said he was going to buy Greenland?

Yes, yes, he goes to his rallies all the time. he time and attacks windmills and attacks for causing cancer and toilets, he doesn't like modern toilets, does he? and you forget about these things because it's too much to say that I should write about it all the time, but often, actually, that's what I do to I got up the nerve to write a column. I just go back to Twitter and in a second you know I'm ready to go Susan, thank you so much for being here. A pleasure to have you please keep up the good work, glass or all. we'll be right back