In a special two-part episode, John Heilemann welcomes the ultimate ruler of the Donald Trump beat, New York Times Senior Reporter Maggie Haberman, who's also the author of the new book that everyone is talking about, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. They discuss Maggie's recent scoop that that the DOJ thinks Trump still has classified documents in his possession and how this might affect Trump's legal jeopardy going forward; Maggie's over 10-year history of covering Trump and her perception that his uncanny ability to tap into the dark side of human emotions and his strong sense of entitlement explain much of his behavior; the difficulties in covering Trump and why it's hard to get him to make definitive statements; what Trump likes and hates about his media coverage; the truth behind Trump's relationships with women and how to make sense of his carefully worded responses to accusations of misogynistic behavior; the motivation behind Trump's authoritarian impulses; whether Trump is now chastened by his role in the insurrection; and if Maggie thinks he'll run for president again in 2024. Maggie also speaks extensively about the criticism that she withheld critical news about Trump exclusively for her book; and she provides an exclusive, never-before-heard audio clip from one of her book interviews with Trump, where he acknowledges that he was much more aware of the severity of COVID from the very start of the pandemic than he originally let on. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.