The next day, I called himhe's an old family friend of the Habermans and has known Maggie since she was about three days oldto ask him to elaborate. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan.Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. "Maggie's whole career has been about grabbing people by the lapels," Burns says. Its the gesture of a writer who knows that her unsentimental view of the President anchors her credibility. "Speak of the devil," she said into the phone. NEW --> Declassified after-action reports support U.S. military commanders who said Biden team was indecisive during the Afghanistan crisis The White House said Friday that no such reports exist. Maggie Haberman during a screening of The Fourth Estate at TheTimesCenter on May 9, 2018, in New York City. Further introspection on the subject of stifling her emotions did not seem to interest her, perhaps because she sees no alternative. Haberman was not the only reporter to see the underlying logic in the daily bedlam emanating from Washington. Ventura headset in 2024, smart glasses with a display and a "neural interface" smartwatch in 2025, and AR glasses in 2027 . [2] They have three children and live in Brooklyn. "What do they thinkthat it's going in a secret newspaper?". . On this week's episode of Jewish Insider 's "Limited Liability Podcast, " hosts Jarrod Bernstein and Rich Goldberg are joined by both actress, producer and author Noa Tishby and New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman. It was simply desperation for a job other than bartending that led her to newspapers. He said that to me in one of our interviews. Trump, having tasted the fairy food of the Oval Office, seems similarly stricken, entranced by power and fame that he is unable to forsake. He is behaving in a racist way. All Rights Reserved. I mean, we know it is not true. By Damon Winter/The New York Times . She'll wake up in the middle of the night and, instead of rolling over and going back to sleep, pick up her phone and start working. The first time I met Haberman, we were in the airy, modern cafeteria of the New York Times building in Manhattan. All rights reserved. Her measured stance infuriates Trump's detractors, who harangue her on Twitter for "normalizing" the president. But no matter what Haberman writes about Trump, he has never frozen her out. CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman weighs in on the statements made to CNN by Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the Atlanta-based grand jury that investigated former President Donald Trump's . [6] Haberman worked for the Post's rival newspaper, the New York Daily News, for three and a half years in the early 2000s,[6] where she continued to cover City Hall. Some passages unfold as groans of exhaustion: For all the intrigue that is part of the Trump mythos, Haberman writes, the irony, say those who have known him for years, is that he has had only a handful of moves throughout his entire adult life. Part of the work of Confidence Man is to source and taxonomize each of these moves, and to identify when Trump is drawing on any one of them. I also think he's extremely suggestible and I think he's extremely paranoid. But, for all Habermans reticence, she maintains a combative Twitter presence, and is quick to press her case in replies when she believes that shes been mischaracterized. 2023 Getty Images. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Last June, Haberman got the tip that Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had been fired while she was sitting in the audience at her son's kindergarten graduation. When Haberman demurs, politely but without apology, he is momentarily stumped. The appointment of a special counsel Robert Mueller last week "took some of the air out of his tires" but he is still spoiling for a fight, Haberman says. One colleague says she didn't realize there was a limit to how many Gchats you could have going at one time until she saw Haberman hit the maximum. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The man is, it appears, too drunk to be able to discern if she's flirting or annoyed. She almost never turns her phone off. Trump frequently complains about Haberman's coverage. For a moment, it seems he might be coming over to tell off the reporter. "Okay, wellfist bump?" As his star climbed, she served as one of his most diligent chroniclers: in 2016, her byline appeared on five hundred and ninety-nine articles; more recently, she has averaged about an article a day. Haberman was born on October 30, 1973, in New York City, the daughter of Clyde Haberman, who became a longtime journalist for The New York Times, and Nancy Haberman (ne Spies), a media communications executive at Rubenstein Associates. The audience was, as always, hanging on her every word, hungry to have her translate Trump into someone they could understand. During Rudy Giulianis second mayoral term, Haberman covered City Hall, a notoriously cutthroat beat. But that's what he said. She had a story that was about to go live on nytimes.com. Haberman described how delighted he was when the New York Post headlined a piece about him with a possibly erroneous quote from Marla Maples: Best Sex Ive Ever Had. She would repeat versions of these same answers and stories at her book event later that evening. . I would argue he is now occupying the most expensive and valuable real estate in the country. Haberman did not let it slide. "You're going to bring this up every time, aren't you?" As for the breaking part, Haberman is more . ", And this is the aspect of the job that Haberman tries to focus on in the midst of the storm of distractions his administration provides: holding him to the truth. When he accused former national security adviser Susan Rice of committing crimes, and defended Fox News' Bill O'Reilly against the sexual harassment claims that would soon end his career at the network? The book is frank about Trumps cruelty. Sean Piccoli,Jonah E. Bromwich,Ben Protess. Her multitasking and compartmentalizing, which the press has covered tirelessly, almost seem like necessary steps in the quarantining of orderindividual and psychic as well as shared and politicalfrom chaos. ", The 1980s and '90s New York in which Haberman was raised is the same milieu in which Trump began his crusade to sand down his Queens edges and gild the Manhattan skyline. Haberman was learning the same arthow to "punch through" in a daily news cycle, as New York Times political reporter and frequent collaborator Alexander Burns puts it. But who he is is also why he won and why he tripled down after Access Hollywood," the political crisis which Haberman says is probably the yardstick Trump is using to measure his response to the current situation. But, if he does, what do you think a second Donald Trump presidency term would look like? "If you're going to come at her," says a Democratic operative, "you've got to come correct. Yes, I can! In the course of reporting the book, she shared considerable . The tabloid playbook, which Haberman memorized and which Trump enacted, reflected a sense that journalists and subjects could feed off one another, that the whole enterprise might be boiled down to eyes and, eventually, wallets. Haberman, for her part, has become a front-page fixture and a Fourth Estate folk hero. Over time, however, as Haberman did not get beat, did not get beat, he realized she was for real. Haberman had her first byline in 1980, when she was seven years old, writing for the Daily News kids' page about a meeting she had with then-mayor Ed Koch. None of this is to say that the Habermans and Trumps were showing up at the same dinner parties, but Manhattan can be a provincial place, among a certain inside crowd. It was Haberman he dialed. Portions of the electorate learned to associate her with distressing updates about the country. Include your name, the article headline, and your message. Honestly, the first name that came to mind as you were asking that question was Richard Nixon, with whom who is obviously not alive anymore, with whom he had a huge fascination. I just want to go back to the psychiatrist line. "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America" by Maggie Haberman (Penguin Press), in Hardcover, Large Print, eBook and Audio formats, available October 4 via Amazon . Stu Marques, then metro editor of the paper, hired Haberman and oversaw her early training. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/maggie-habermans-new-book-confidence-man-details-trumps-rise-to-prominence, Donald Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in Mar-a-Lago dispute, Rex Tillerson testifies at corruption trial of Trump adviser, Trumps embrace of QAnon raising concerns about future political violence, How Trump may have violated the Presidential Records Act, "confidence man: the making of donald trump and the breaking of america". Designed with adjustable nose pads for a custom fit. I was somewhat surprised to see that, Haberman said when I asked her about the conversation, characterizing her call as routine. Shortly after Hutchinsons deposition, she notes, the Times published a story on the January 6th committees progress that included the news that at least one witness was willing to testify that Trump had approved of rioters chanting Hang Mike Pence and that Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, had burned documents in a fireplace. Maggie Lindsy Haberman (born October 30, 1973) is an American journalist, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, and a political analyst for CNN. You don't even know where she isshe could be anywhere. It's titled "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.". The former presidents lawyers cited executive privilege, a tactic they have used with other ex-Trump aides. ", [youtube ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPME4VCNmyc&t=79s[/youtube]. Trumps insistence on taking unnecessary flights kind of goes to what he will sublimate in the service of something else, Haberman said. She was thinking aloud about her scheduleshe doesn't keep an actual calendar, not on paper, not on her phone; it's all in her head. Significantly, she was accumulating sources who were close to Trump, who knew when he was angry and what he watched on TV and how he could only sleep well in his own bed. When Trump gave an undisciplined press conference a few weeks into his presidency, the DC press and pols were comparing it to late-stage Nixon, Thrush says. Ashley Parker, now a Washington Post White House correspondent but then one of Haberman's colleagues at the Times, says Haberman confirmed the tip and wrote the story on her phone during the graduation. "She's got it with her at all times," says her husband, Dareh Gregorian. And thank you for having me to talk about the book. Maggie Haberman, thank you, the reporter who has known Donald Trump longer than any other. But she also acknowledges Trumps seductiveness, recognizing that he was mesmerizing to watch, his speech fast and cocky and self-assured, with the ability to be both funny and cutting, both charming and derisive, often in the same sentence. Trumps gestures, Haberman insisted, have a metaphysical hollowness. Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the New York Times, stops midsentence to . People wanted her to provide a normative framing for what was going on, the professor and media commentator Daniel Drezner said. She leaves it hanging for a momentpanic flashes across his facebut then gives him a bump. "I didn't care for that metaphor," Haberman says. She has worked for the trifecta of local dailies The Post, The Daily News and, most. 75 and the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a private school in the Bronx. "You're pretty!" "She grew up in an environment where journalism that was as accurate as humanly possible was practically a religion," he says. And, finally, Maggie Haberman, you have said that he may have backed himself into a corner when it comes to whether he's going to run for president again, and, for that reason, he may do it. penguinrandomhouse.com. But it gives her added credibility when she argues, as she did when Trump fired Comey, that one of Trump's aberrant moves is a big deal. There are briefing-room tantrums, incredulous generals, and off-color mutterings. She believes in the power of breaking incremental newsnot holding every-thing back for a long read. The publication of Confidence Man reignited controversies over Habermans ethics. He treats everyone like they're his psychiatrist, because he's working everything out in real time. Haberman's father, Clyde, is a Pulitzer Prizewinning New York Times reporter, and her mother, Nancy, is a publicity powerhouse at Rubensteina communications firm founded by Howard Rubenstein, whose famous spinning prowess Trump availed himself of during various of his divorce and business contretemps. I think that's what a second President Trump presidency would look like. When the moderator of the panel, Jeff Greenfield, a veteran reporter and host of PBS's Need to Know, remarks that a Democratic senator told him the Republican senators think Trump is "nuts," Haberman prefaces her response with "I don't know that I'd go with the diagnostic that you used," but then offerswith specific details that are more enlightening and perhaps more damningthat she had lunch with a Republican senator who has been astonished to discover that Trump watches his every move in the media, calling him directly to parse his TV appearances and quotes he's given the print press. One communications staffer after another told me that they appreciate the fact that she never blindsides them. And so it is easy for people to convince him that something is true, when it is not. Questions about her process elicited similarly guarded answers. She was also on her laptop. By the time Trump formally announced his candidacy in June 2015 and Haberman was assigned to his campaign, she'd been reporting on him for a decade. In the midst of his second divorce, from Marla Maples, Trump was a maestro of controlling his tabloid image, calling in tidbits about himself. Maggie Haberman, political corespondent for The New York Times, reporting at a Bernie Sanders rally at Hunter's Point South Park in New York, April 18, 2016. ", .css-5rg4gn{display:block;font-family:NeueHaasUnica,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-5rg4gn:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:-0.02em;margin:0.75rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:0.02rem;margin:0.9375rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;margin:0.9375rem 0 0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;}}The First Day Back Was Agonizing, Monterey Park Has Been a Safe Haven for My Family, How to Help Victims of the Turkey-Syria Earthquake, Iranians Are Fighting and Dying for Their Rights, This Black History Month, Im Angry as Hell, Jacinda Ardern Showed Moms How to Speak Up, My Chronic Illness Led Me to Get an Abortion, How Barnard Students Fought for Abortion Pills. She glanced at it, then apologized. The debate is set for August, in the same city that will host the partys 2024 convention. "[22] The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending October 8, 2022. "I used to really cringe at the way my colleagues would talk to spokespeople," she said. In the epilogue, Haberman describes a post-Presidential interview in which Trump cracked to his aides, I love being with her, shes like my psychiatrist. The next sentence reflexively brushes his statement aside, insisting, It was a meaningless line, almost certainly intended to flatter. Habermans point is that Trump rarely changes from context to context; he treats everyone like his psychiatrist. NEW YORK Late one recent afternoon, Maggie Haberman pulled into a parking spot in the lot at Gargiulo's, the old-time Italian restaurant in Coney Island where Donald Trump's father used to . [13] In March 2016 Haberman, along with New York Times reporter David E. Sanger, questioned Trump in an interview, "Donald Trump Expounds on His Foreign Policy Views," during which he "agreed with a suggestion that his ideas might be summed up as 'America First'". Trump is growing visibly with his speech and delivering some adlibs, she wrote on the site, echoing her observation, in Confidence Man, that in the eighties news outlets treated him as if he were born anew with every story. (At one point in our conversation, she told me that he regenerates.) As Trumps political missteps and legal woes pile up, Haberman appears to be relaxing her vigil. She was, however, one of the most relentless and consistent. "My enduring image of her is, she's standing outside the [press] van, she has a cigarette already lit in one hand, she's lighting a second one because she's forgotten that she has the first one lit, right? "I'm just trying not to get beat," she says. ", Haberman is growing weary of the DC establishment's seeming inability to metabolize the president's personality. 14-Day Free Returns. She previously worked as a political reporter for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and Politico. We encounter all the usual suspects: Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway and Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. She wrote about Donald Trump for those publications and rose to prominence covering his campaign, presidency, and post-presidency for the Times. he yelps like a sixth grader sent our way on a dare, and dashes off. Ad Choices. Haberman countered that such soap operas have been happening for years. And while there are still hard feelings toward the Times from Hillary Clinton operatives and votersthey complain that the paper obsessed over Clinton's e-mail scandal but failed to give commensurate ink to Trump's ties to Russia and potential conflicts of interest, among other subjectsmultiple people I spoke to who worked for Clinton are careful to draw a distinction between Haberman and the institution of the Times.