Mark Halperin

People on the left don't understand how Trump won not once but twice.

People on the right understand full well how Donald Trump won and supported him.

But they don't really understand the left's perspective on this.

And so a lot of my reporting now is part reporting, part therapy session, as it's been for the last decade, as I talk to people who love Donald Trump and love what he's doing for America and to America.

And those who do not, to say the least.

And I'm so frustrated by the inability to bring people together.

It's not really my job to do it, but I know in my bones it'd be good for the country.

two television appearances of mine, or video appearances, I should say.

One was on TV, one was on YouTube, that I want to share.

They kind of bookend this period, at least through the last presidential election, and then bridge into today.

One was with Stephen Colbert on election night in 2016, and one was with Tucker Carlson shortly before the 2024 election.

And in both cases, I said things that, when I said them,

were treated with shock, were treated with, in some quarters, criticism, accusations of being hyperbolic or off base.

But I think they both stand up.

I think they both stand up and survive the test of time.

Because Donald Trump's presence in our lives is something that I think we haven't really understood fully.

Even people who think about it a lot, who are paid to analyze it like me, it's a very difficult thing to get our arms around, to have tens of millions of people in America shocked, stunned, disappointed, upset.

by this presidency.

And tens of millions couldn't be more excited, think he's the greatest president.

Or even if they see the flaws in Donald Trump, think he was an absolute essential corrective to decades of liberal governance, both in government, but also in places like universities and