Trump’s Ghostwriter Says the President Is Now In Survival Mode

Q&A with Tony Schwartz, the author behind The Art of the Deal–he says Trump has always been “100 percent self-absorbed, incapable of interest in other human beings, and completely self-referential. Even 30 years ago, he had an incredibly short attention span. Lying was almost second nature to him; he did it as easily as most of us drink a glass of water.”  But now, as Special Counsel Robert Mueller closes in, he is “moving to a darker place.”
–continued at TheNation.com, HERE

Michelle Goldberg: Do Republicans Have the Guts to Go Against Trump? Plus Bob Dreyfuss on Mueller at work, and Tony Schwartz on Trump.

Republicans and Trump, after the indictments: Michelle Goldberg, op-ed columnist at The New York Times, looks at why some Senate Republicans have broken with Trump—and why the rest have not, even after special counsel Robert Mueller has made it clear he’s just getting started with criminal charges against Trump’s associates.
Also: Tony Schwartz knows a lot about Trump—in fact, he wrote Trump’s bestselling memoir The Art of the Deal. That classic of modern literature spent forty-eight weeks in 1987 on the Times best-seller list, and more than a million copies have been sold. When Mueller’s prosecutors close in on Trump, will he become more cautious and careful? Schwartz’s answer is a short one: “Not a chance in hell.”
Plus: The arrest of Trump’s campaign chief Paul Manafort on Monday on multiple felony charges is only the beginning of the results of the work of special counsel Robert Muller. The political implications for Trump are ominous. Bob Dreyfuss explains.
Listen HERE

Is Trump Crazy? Would Pence Be Worse? Jane Mayer on Pence, Amy Wilentz on Trump, plus Raj Patel on the problem with cheap food.

Would Pence be worse? Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reports—she interviewed more than 60 people in search of answers, including Pence’s mother. Several say he’s wanted to be president at least since high school.

Also: Is Trump crazy? Amy Wilentz talks about The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, edited by Bandy X. Lee, in which 27 psychiatrists and mental-health experts give their assessments of the president. The book is number four on the New York Times bestseller list this week.

Plus: The problem with cheap food: Raj Patel explains how we can get to a more just and equitable food future—he wrote about that for The Nation’s special issue on “The Future of Food.” His new book is A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things.
Listen HERE

E.J. Dionne: America After Trump—plus Why are Trump voters so angry? Historian Steve Hahn on TrumpWatch

America After Trump: E.J. Dionne argues that Trump has mobilized progressive political forces that can transform America—and he reminds us that Trump never had a majority of voters, and is the most unpopular presidents in our history. E.J. is co-author of “One Nation After Trump: A Guide to the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet-Deported.”

Also: Why are Trump voters so angry? Historian Steve Hahn examines explanations of white working class rage, starting with the monster bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance, which has spent more than a year on the best-seller list. Also: “White Rage” by Carol Anderson, and Justin Gest’s book “The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of immigration and Inequality.”
Listen HERE

How Much Time Could Women Reclaim If They Didn’t Have to Deal With Men’s Bullshit? Joan Walsh on Harvey Weinstein, plus John Nichols on Trump’s generals, and Zoë Carpenter on the future of food: The Nation podcast

In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations of sexual harassment and assault, Joan Walsh talks about the torrent of #metoo stories, which reveal just how much time women spend dealing with male abuse.
Also: Will the generals save us from Trump’s impulsiveness, irrationality, ignorance, and aggression? Chief of Staff John Kelley, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster are said to offer a “calming force” on the administration—but John Nichols is skeptical.
Plus: The Nation’s special Food Issue, out now, asks the question “How do we get to a more equitable and sustainable food system?” Zoë Carpenter comments—she was one of the editors of the issue.
Listen HERE