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- NYT’s Maggie Haberman cautioned against people who are writing Trump off.
- Haberman said that the former president is diminished but he still remains a political force.
- “I do think that he is stronger than people think,” Haberman said on a recent podcast.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said it is clear that Donald Trump’s political power has waned, but it is far too early to write off the former president either in the 2024 GOP primaries or in the general election.
“He’s not nothing but he’s not what he was, and that makes measuring what he is now very hard in terms of his strength,” Haberman told former top Obama advisors David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs on their “Hacks on Tap” podcast.
Haberman and former top Democratic operatives agreed that it is far too early to project that Trump would lose the GOP nomination to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or would be unable to oust President Joe Biden in a general election. DeSantis, who has amassed significant popularity, has yet to announce a campaign neither has Biden. Biden has been clear that it’s his intention to run for reelection.
“I think that anybody who says, ‘he’s done’ that is clearly a mistake,” Haberman said of those who are dour on Trump’s chances.
Trump has called Haberman “like my psychiatrist” and the veteran Times reporter wrote a lengthy biography about the former president. She ticked off a list of reasons why Trump remains a formidable force in the GOP, including his committed base of supporters even if that support has eroded.
“I think the number of people who would stay home is not as great as people envision,” she said. “I do agree that his base is incredibly durable.”
Haberman added out that even after the January 6 Capitol riot, a segment of the Republican Party remains behind Trump.
“All of these national events, sort of like January 6 and then the hearings about that day and Trump’s efforts to cling to power, have not had some broader Nixon-era bipartisan impact, which was obvious that it was going to be that way because the country is too bifurcated and politics are too bifurcated” she said. “But I do think that he is stronger than people think.”
Nodding to Axelrod and Gibbs’ respective circles, Haberman said Democrats should be weary of hoping for Trump as the GOP nominee, the exact scenario that played out in 2016 before Trump’s shocking upset.
“There are plenty of Democrats that you and I know that are rooting for Trump to be the nominee, because they think he will be the easiest for President Biden to beat,” she said. “I would not make the statement that gets made to me all the time, “Trump can’t win another national election.’ I don’t know that to be true, no one does.”
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