Ashley Parker

People say he's incredibly compelling on the phone.

He plays a lot of golf on the weekends.

He goes to his private clubs, Mar-a-Lago in the winter, Bedminster sometimes when it's nicer, where he holds court there.

Yeah.

And he loves a lot of inputs, but you're right.

It's much more of like a rolling conversation than it is sort of a meaningful policy debate in the traditional sense.

That's absolutely true.

In reasonable, people can argue that

they would prefer their president to spend that time differently, right?

I mean, as Michael was saying, Trump can get incredibly in the weeds.

We have had people say to us, you know, when he is redesigning the Oval Office, he is the one who is looking at the different shades of gold inlet, in which one should go here, in which type of chandelier, and, you know, a meeting at Mar-a-Lago being stopped because he notices out his window that a tree is bending the wrong way.

Now, again, would perhaps most voters prefer he take that level of passion and attention to detail to figuring out what's going on in Minneapolis?

Absolutely.

Potentially.

But he does have that capacity for what he cares about.

And what he cares about is often not the policy weeds.

I mean, it's a president who governs and rules on sort of raw, visceral gut instinct.

And, you know, Michael said he's very transactional.

A way I view it that I think is helpful in understanding him and explaining his contradictory impulses is he is someone who is always trying to win the minute, the hour, the day.

He is trying to win over and woo the person directly in front of him, which can send him at times careening.