"This place is so loud I want to put a bullet in my brain," she had said, matter-of-factly, when we first sat down for a late dinner, observing that so much hard-partying energy on a weeknight seemed more NYC than DC. He clearly, in my reporting and I describe this in the first few days after the November 2020 election, he seemed aware that he had lost in his conversations with a number of aides. By 1999, Marques put Haberman on the City Hall beat, where she covered then-mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump friend. Maggie Haberman, the Confidence Man's Chronicler | The New Yorker [2] Haberman returned to the Post to cover the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign and other political races. Perhaps he glimpsed himself as if in a mirror. Haberman pressed her point: "It was two months ago. Haberman says she'd had no interest in journalism up to this point. Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, has been covering Donald Trump since the 1990s. When Haberman interviewed Trump in the Oval Office this April, he was making his usual complaint about how unfair her coverage is. He learned showmanship from the former mayor Ed Koch, the Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and the McCarthyite lawyer Roy Cohnwhose singular talent, the book notes, was for emotional terrorism. From the remnants of Brooklyns Democratic machine he extracted lessons about the power that might be gained from pitting ethnic groups against one another. ", Trump has also sent her his famous press clippings with Sharpie notes on them, mostly with criticisms, but at least once with praise. That [Trump] is unconcerned by that, I think, is the big issue," she says. He noticed right away that Haberman had talent. Maggie Haberman on Donald Trump: "He saw the presidency as the ultimate She finds the framing of her relationship with the president in romantic terms "facile." His behavior is really what matters on this front. He's tall with an athletic build and a military-style cut to his orange hair. This purple frame wouldn't be complete without the intricate temple detail, a distinct touch to help you stand out from the crowd. Maggie Haberman on Twitter Todays press culture thrusts reporters onstage, parsing their judgments and perspectives as part of a ceaseless Twitter meta-drama about journalistic integrity. "In the beginning, you're going to a lot of crime scenes. A Conversation with Maggie Haberman, Trump's Favorite Foe [29][21], Haberman married Dareh Ardashes Gregorian, a reporter for the New York Daily News, formerly of the New York Post, and son of Vartan Gregorian, in a November 2003 ceremony at the Tribeca Rooftop in Manhattan. She doesn't see any climactic resolution to the Trump saga coming anytime soon. "I'm actually not trying to be funny," Haberman said, correcting them, and, when they continued to laugh, insisting, "Again, I'm not doing a comedy line. Even those of us who had covered Trump for years struggled with how to handle the gush of falsehoods that dotted his sentences. But, in person, Haberman appeared nonplussed when I asked how she negotiates the gray areas in which her duty to break news aligns uncomfortably with Trumps interests. But his campaign is preparing for an ugly, protracted primary fight for the nomination. ", It makes her both an enticing challenge and a nettlesome problem for a president who does not let the truth get in the way of a good story. "This is a symbiotic relationship," says an administration official. Maggie Haberman Profile - How Maggie Haberman Covers Donald Trump - ELLE 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. "On more than one occasion, somebody would fly out of their desk and [announce something] that the New York Times was about to post, or a story the Times was working on, or some random bit of gossip, and then somebody else would pop their head up and say, 'Oh, did Maggie just tell you that?' Subscribe to Heres the Deal, our politics As the 2024 race gears up, the Confidence Man and his chronicler have become each others context, bound together and propelled by desires that both are and arent their own. "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 . It's titled "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.". She says she does most of her work from her car, shuttling her kids around, dashing between the office in Times Square and her apartment. 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. 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. 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. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Most recently, just in the last few days, he put out a statement about Elaine Chao, the wife of Senator Mitch McConnell. And, again, I could name many others. He is very aware that, if you repeat something over and over again, it can turn it into something real. She leaves it hanging for a momentpanic flashes across his facebut then gives him a bump. I don't know if you're familiar with the children's book "Harold and the Purple Crayon," but it's about a child named Harold who literally has a purple crayon, and he draws a whole world at night one night. She has worked for the trifecta of local dailies The Post, The Daily News and, most. 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. Well, we know that he I mean, and you have written this. Maggie Haberman Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images It would look like him. "Short fiction, always somewhat curiously resembling my own life," she says. Her expertise wasn't just Trumpit was the Trump psyche. "And yet Trump seems driven to connect with her.". He gives off a hint of reality TVwith his mirages, his come-ons, his brazenness, his feintsand a dash of the Devil. Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the New York Times, stops midsentence to . (The first time she quoted Trump in a piece was in 2006: "Real-estate mogul Donald Trump talked up Clinton as the next president in Florida on Friday night, reportedly saying at a state GOP fund-raiser, 'She's a brilliant woman and she's going to be a very, very formidable candidate. Absolutely I think she can win, especially if the war's still going on.' 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. Her new book, "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America," chronicles where he came from and how his experiences in New York City impact our nation's politics today. 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. Over time, however, as Haberman did not get beat, did not get beat, he realized she was for real. The book is frank about Trumps cruelty. He views the truth as something that's transactional. Include your name, the article headline, and your message. Haberman jumped to Politico in 2010, where she covered him full-bore for the first time; he was then flirting with the idea of joining the 2012 Republican primary and beginning to spread the lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. She goes on to talk about a fragile ego that has to be constantly fed and so on. Intense is one of the words friends and colleagues most often use to describe her. Maggie Haberman reacts to Trump grand jury foreperson's remarks: 'I've He was shaped by how to attract those stories.. It was simply desperation for a job other than bartending that led her to newspapers. Other commentators, reacting to Rupert Murdochs withdrawal of support and the strong Democratic showing in the midterms, were beginning to treat Trump like a political has-been. This book is her most sustained attempt to pin him down. Maggie Haberman, thank you, the reporter who has known Donald Trump longer than any other. But Confidence Man is among the first to seriously consider its subjects backstory, how he sprang from the overlapping scenes of New York real estate, city government, and media celebrity. he yelps like a sixth grader sent our way on a dare, and dashes off. 2023 Getty Images. Sister Sites: Techmeme Tech news essentials. [4], Haberman's career began in 1996 when she was hired by the New York Post. Showing Editorial results for maggie haberman. Adds Haberman, "Some Ed Koch. "If you're going to come at her," says a Democratic operative, "you've got to come correct. Haberman told me that she believed a number of people from the Trump era remain newsworthy, either because they illuminate something about Trump himself or because they are the subjects of or witnesses in investigations. "There has been a very protracted shocked stage in Washington, and I think people have to move past that. People wanted her to provide a normative framing for what was going on, the professor and media commentator Daniel Drezner said. ", Haberman has reached the point in her career where sources are now chasing her, instead of the other way aroundlying to her risks banishment and access to her news-promulgating prowess. Taylor Lorenz now at Washington Post fights Maggie Haberman - Intelligencer After Trump rose to political prominence, Haberman became a player in the theatre of the Trump era: an avatar of journalisms promise, but also of its shortcomings. What Did We Learn About the Georgia Grand Jurys Findings? The man is, it appears, too drunk to be able to discern if she's flirting or annoyed. She catches herself. You know, he plopped himself down on Fifth Avenue"a reference to the 58-story Trump Tower"and he still was not treated seriously by New York's business elite. What is he at his core, what does he care about? He is behaving in a racist way. I reflexively tense up; she doesn't flinch. Lorenz's new classmates at the Post and a few of her old ones at the Times called her out-of-date self-empowerment-via-marketing-lingo "cringey" and basically labeled her a neo-journalism . Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan.Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. "I didn't care for that metaphor," Haberman says. 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". [12], Haberman frequently broke news about the Trump campaign and administration. Haberman heard rumors of colleagues fielding calls from the magnate during which hed dangle gossip items. Former President Donald Trump said reporter Maggie Haberman was like his "psychiatrist" during one of their interviews, according to Haberman's new book. The phone rang, and she started laughing when she looked at her iPhone display. Sensitive subject, but we know there are a number of incidents that happened during his presidency that led people to say he is racist. births and plastic surgeries), and the funerals of firefighters and civic luminaries. The first two years of the Trump presidency were a boom time for political books, and one of the boomiest was the deal announced in September 2017 in which the New York Times' star White House reporters, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush . So, what exactly is in his heart, I think, becomes irrelevant. Once, in July 2015, she did laugh, on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, at something Democratic congressman Keith Ellison said about Trump having "momentum" going into the primaries. Rosenhas taken issue with Habermans characterization of Trump as a master of media manipulation: If you are a man, and you bite a dog, he wrote, that does not make you a master of anything. But Haberman, who tends to predict that Trump will express his worst impulses and cause maximum damage, told me she believed that he is more often underestimated than overestimated. Thank you. Haberman sees herself as a demystifier. Lyndon Johnson gave preference to Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Walter Lippmann, and Lippmann had once gone so far as to secretly write part of a speech for Johnsonand then write a story praising the speech. "No, that's not all I care about. As a woman and a receptacle for liberals disappointed hopes about the capacities of journalism in the MAGA era, Haberman received a tremendous amount of vitriol, Drezner said. 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. "What do they thinkthat it's going in a secret newspaper?". He's hitting on her. She turned the phone over. She believes in the power of breaking incremental newsnot holding every-thing back for a long read. When Haberman demurs, politely but without apology, he is momentarily stumped. . On this evening, she is recovering from the flu and has been up for the better part of two days, racing back and forth on Amtrak between her family and an Oval Office interview with the president, and speaking engagements at New York's Lincoln Center and DC's Newseum. Premium Access. Haberman has what can only be described as a wildly expressive poker face: her slender, Clara Bow-ish eyebrows lifting, her tired eyes widening behind her smudged glasses, a tiny pinpoint of a mole on her upper lip emphasizing the thin line she's pressed her mouth into, the dimple in her chin appearing and disappearing as her jaw muscles shift. Millions of high-quality images, video, and music options are waiting for you. Trumps insistence on taking unnecessary flights kind of goes to what he will sublimate in the service of something else, Haberman said. During the Trump era, Haberman became an avatar of journalisms promise as well as of its failures. The former presidents lawyers cited executive privilege, a tactic they have used with other ex-Trump aides. 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. "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? 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. Hope you'll take a moment to order CONFIDENCE MAN here. "The difference is, Maggie is in no sense carrying water for Trump," Greenfield said. In the weeks before John Wayne Gacys scheduled execution, he was far from reconciled to his fate. This article appears in the July 2017 issue of ELLE.. Exclusive: See the Trump toilet photos that he denies ever existed - Axios Through it all, she never missed a beat in our conversation. Greenfield introduced Haberman by saying that he couldn't remember a reporter having established a relationship with a president quite like hers with Trump. "I have respect for you, sir, but you have called me to thank me about my coverage over the past year and a half at different points," she told him. Trump Tried to Get Maggie Haberman's Phone Records: Politico Theyre outraged by what were covering, and they dont understand why its not having the effect it should. Donald Trump will be basking in affection from activists at CPAC on Saturday. I think he has a long pattern of racist behavior going back to when he was in New York City. Meanwhile, Trump, still revelling in his defeat of Hillary Clinton, cast her as another antagonist, the embodiment of the Failing New York Times. She and the President invited doppelgnger comparisons: the flashy fabulist and the buttoned-down institutionalist locked in each others sights. For Confidence Man, Haberman interviewed Trump three times. I just want to go back to the psychiatrist line. How Maggie Haberman Covers Trump Without Losing Her Mind Many of the juiciest Trump pieces have been broken by her: That story about him spending his evenings alone in a bathrobe, watching cable news? In interviews, she has often invoked the childrens book Harold and the Purple Crayon to illustrate Trumps peculiar blurring of fact and fantasy. She is not a fan of SNL's impression of Kellyanne Conway as a psychopathic fame whore. All Rights Reserved. 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. She was wearing an evil-eye bracelet. Over the years, she has honed a stable interpretation of Trump, evoking not a strongman but a showman, an egomaniac with shrewd instincts and bad opinions. "And so he will take this chair and say to you, 'This is actually a table.' Its possible that all of the jurors votes recommended against indictment, but it isnt sounding like it. It was like watching someone juggle fire while standing on a tightrope. The books thesisTrumps gonna Trumpis pointedly unglamorous, in keeping with Habermans deflationary assessments of Trumps character. The quick-hit rhythm that Trump and Haberman were both fine-tuning teed them up perfectly for today's Twitter-paced news environment. Her measured stance infuriates Trump's detractors, who harangue her on Twitter for "normalizing" the president. Yes, I can! You don't even know where she isshe could be anywhere. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. She echoed the same thought to me in email dispatches as she and her colleagues furiously traded scoops with the Washington Post last week. Part of what makes Haberman one of Trumps foremost contextualizers is her fluency in the worlds that formed him. "She's got it with her at all times," says her husband, Dareh Gregorian. Because she was literally talking to 16 people within our campaign at the same time.". 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. Like, Maggies friendly to us. Habermans own sense of Trumps spooky potency continues to shape her coverage. As for the breaking part, Haberman is more . Collect, curate and comment on your files. She was the dominant Trump reporter on the campaign, and she didn't travel with him. Search instead in. Is Trump-Whisperer Maggie Haberman Changing - Vanity Fair And since President Trump fired FBI director James Comey, Haberman has been on the frontlines of the nonstop news bombshells that have been lobbed, bylining or credited with a reporting assist on around two dozen stories in two weeks. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. [14], In October 2016, one month before Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election, a stolen document released by WikiLeaks outlined how Clinton's campaign could induce Haberman to place sympathetic stories in Politico. "What you're seeing with Maggie Haberman is, you're watching one of the greatest people to ever do this job, giving a maximum effort. Ad Choices. By Kenneth P. Vogel,Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt. I mean, how does he take in facts? Haberman graduated in 1996 from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied creative writing and psychology. [19], In 2022, Haberman published a book on the Trump presidency called Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. "I'm wearing a sweatshirt, and my hair is in a bun," she told the producer. However, contrary to the hopes of her campaign, subsequent stories by Haberman about Clinton were much more critical of her than they had hoped for. A characteristic article, which she co-wrote in July of 2017, emphasized that Donald Trump, Jr.,s huddle with a Kremlin-linked lawyer proved unusual for a political campaign but consistent with the haphazard approach the Trump operation, and the White House, have taken in vetting people they deal with. It was a quintessential Haberman balancing act, which underlined both the meetings extraordinary nature (for Washington) and the mundane pattern that it fit (for the Trumps). She says they were talking about infrastructure when, "out of nowhere," he raised the This Week laugh. Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. President Xi Jinping of China, he has been praising repeatedly since he left office. And probably because her mother is a publicist, she doesn't view Trump's press flacks, or flacks in general, as the enemy. He stands looking down at her, swaying a little, slightly walleyed, but he still has a big-man swagger. [19] She has also been accused "from certain corners of the left as a supposed water carrier for the 45th president". According to Hutchinson, Passantinos phone rangit was the Times reporter Maggie Haberman. "This is a very precarious moment, in terms of what anyone can believe in. I was shaped by understanding what sold in a tabloid, Haberman told me. The publication of Confidence Man reignited controversies over Habermans ethics. 24/7 Customer . Maggie Haberman, thank you so much for joining us. Haberman, one of the main conduits of Oval Office drama, came under particular fire for her handling of anonymous sources. The Manhattan district attorneys office is scrutinizing the former presidents role in the hush money payment to a porn star. "I'm not sure the objective facts will let him do that this time. Is it the claustrophobia that bothers her? ", "Maggie's magic is that she's the dominant reporter on the [White House] beat, and she doesn't even live in Washington. Maggie Haberman chose not to make this about another smear campaign against the 45th president of the United States, but rather offer some context that all readers ought to heed. 'Confidence Man,' Maggie Haberman's Book on Trump: Review - The New