Maggie Haberman

He's not reflecting on mistakes that he made or how the White House handled questions about his age or the fact that large numbers of reporters were attacked on social media and elsewhere for raising questions that were taking place in front of their eyes. Right.

He's not reflecting on mistakes that he made or how the White House handled questions about his age or the fact that large numbers of reporters were attacked on social media and elsewhere for raising questions that were taking place in front of their eyes. Right.

And to deliver the statement of, yes, I could have won, but who knows if I – I can't say for sure if I could have served the whole four years, that's a pretty astonishing statement.

And to deliver the statement of, yes, I could have won, but who knows if I – I can't say for sure if I could have served the whole four years, that's a pretty astonishing statement.

I didn't get to hear most of the eulogies, Michael, but from what I saw visually, what was striking was Mike Pence sitting almost directly behind Donald Trump, and they shook hands at one point. I don't think they have seen each other in person since they left office.

I didn't get to hear most of the eulogies, Michael, but from what I saw visually, what was striking was Mike Pence sitting almost directly behind Donald Trump, and they shook hands at one point. I don't think they have seen each other in person since they left office.

And Trump has since said, well, those people were angry, you know, the mob at the Capitol of his supporters in explaining somewhat justifying why they would be saying such things. The other thing that really struck me was just this what looked like moments of levity. I don't know if it was pretend or not between President Obama and President Trump who were sitting next to each other.

And Trump has since said, well, those people were angry, you know, the mob at the Capitol of his supporters in explaining somewhat justifying why they would be saying such things. The other thing that really struck me was just this what looked like moments of levity. I don't know if it was pretend or not between President Obama and President Trump who were sitting next to each other.

I noticed those as well. You know, these are two men who, the one who is about to be president for a second time, rose to prominence in the Republican Party by questioning the legitimacy of the former president.

I noticed those as well. You know, these are two men who, the one who is about to be president for a second time, rose to prominence in the Republican Party by questioning the legitimacy of the former president.

Was he born in the United States? Right. Was he truly born in the U.S.? It was really striking, especially because Obama was quite pointed about Donald Trump during this last campaign in a way that he generally hadn't been. We're going to slide in and out of sort of Washington routine and normalcy at certain points. And then there's going to be how Trump does things.

Was he born in the United States? Right. Was he truly born in the U.S.? It was really striking, especially because Obama was quite pointed about Donald Trump during this last campaign in a way that he generally hadn't been. We're going to slide in and out of sort of Washington routine and normalcy at certain points. And then there's going to be how Trump does things.

That is not how things have usually been done. And today was just a stark reminder of that.

That is not how things have usually been done. And today was just a stark reminder of that.

Thanks, Michael.

Donald Trump does not need goosing or juicing to be against this particular bill, at least publicly. The question is not which one of them got the other riled up. They clearly got each other riled up. The question is, what did Trump actually know about what was in this bill before this all started? There are things in this bill that he wasn't going to like.

And that, I think, should have been pretty clear to Mike Johnson. So... Elon Musk and Donald Trump were going to, I think, both arrive at this place pretty naturally. This is not one following the other.

And now Trump is very dramatically taking the lead and gave a bunch of interviews to television reporters on Thursday morning saying various versions of why this bill shouldn't exist and why maybe Mike Johnson shouldn't be the speaker if he can't push through what Trump wants.

Right. I mean, look, I think it is true that he, that is what he thinks. Whether he's right or not, Michael, I mean, you know, Trump forced a shutdown when he was president. And he was pretty surprised that he ended up getting blame for it. But Trump doesn't suffer a ton of durable blame. I think that most voters are fairly tuned out right now.

If there's a shutdown and people are not getting paid, they are going to blame Trump. In part, they'll blame President Biden-ish, but really they're going to blame House Republicans because that's who's going to take the fault. And Trump will just point it back to them. I don't think it's going to have a meaningful difference.