David Brooks: evaluation

Transcript context

…I wanted to ask you what you think about President Trump’s job performance. Do you approve or disapprove overall? And do you think the Democrats will take the House in the midterms? So I know a lot about the future. [laughter] I would have to say they would, simply because if you run the raw numbers, they need to pick up, what — 23, 24 seats? And that happens 50 percent of the time. And when the president’s approval is under 50, it happens 86 percent of the time. So just by that raw number you’d think they have a pretty good shot at taking the House. I think it’s much less likely that they’ll take the Senate, just the way the geography works and because of the candidates Republicans have chosen. As for Trump approval, I have to say a number of things. One, I think it’s appalling. As a cultural determinist, I pay a lot of attention to norms and social fabric, and I think he’s pretty good at making friend-enemy distinctions and poking a red-hot wound into every divide we have in this country and making it worse. I place a high value on social norms and cultures. I have to say, for my friends who are Trump supporters, they say, “Yeah, I don’t really pay attention to that stuff. I just look at the economy. I look at some of the things I like that he’s done.” And there are some things, a lot of things I like that he’s done. The economy has not tanked, and I expected support to wane as the scandals mounted — it has not waned at all. I happen to support the move — we’re speaking on the day they moved the embassy, our embassy in Israel, to Jerusalem. I happen to think that was the right move. Jerusalem is clearly the capital of Israel, so we should recognize reality. The tax cut, kind of linked to something. I was against it because it seemed to me not the tax reform I always dreamed of, and it seemed to me a way to basically take money out of blue pockets and put it into red pockets, and I didn’t want to see our tax system turned into a tribal weapon. I didn’t think corporate tax cuts were the way to increase growth, but you linked to a study — I don’t know if you’re allowed to talk in these things, but at least a story in Bloomberg that suggested that since the corporate tax cuts, that capital expenditures have risen 37 percent, and stock buybacks have only risen 16 percent, which suggests that the corporate rate cuts are producing more economic activities than a lot of economists suggested they would. So I’m open to the fact that a lot of Trump policies may have surprisingly beneficial effects, but it’ll be very hard to persuade me they’re good enough to justify the harm he’s doing to our democracy. With that, David, thank you very much.…

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