Jessica Tarlov

And by extension...

the kind of meta thing that Donald Trump's administration has shown me or changed my perspective, and I guess implicit in this is admitting that I'm a bit of a Pollyanna, but

I guess I didn't really believe that everything that went on in government was as transactional as it actually is.

You know, when he says you can always get a deal done, right?

You just have to find the thing that the person wants.

And I'm watching, you know, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff sitting there on 60 Minutes.

And I'm thinking this is all just a game of money chess for these people, right?

You find out what everyone wants.

Is it religion?

Is it oil?

money, you know, gazalago, whatever it is, and you can always get a deal done.

And that has fundamentally changed how I think about the business of politics.

And it's not like I didn't know that it went on, but to this degree, that people will turn a blind eye to levels of corruption at this level.

in order to get an outcome that they want, whether that's more money in their own pocket or that they want a particular outcome, right, like in the Middle East.

And that has been very jarring and one of, I think, his main impacts.

Like, he's the biggest mirror that American society has ever had, right?

That he—you hold it up and you see—

stuff within the American populace that you had hoped wasn't there.

Like in 2016, my dad said, this is what we deserve.

We will be fine, but it's what we deserve.