Bob Woodward became famous breaking the Watergate story that eventually brought down President Richard Nixon, and he’s never been associated with the conservative movement. However, he recently had some things to say about the Trump administration that might make a few of his fans scratch their heads. Commenting on the fall of Steve Bannon in the Trump White House, Woodward told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that Trump is a “pragmatist,” and he has set his staff up to provide “options” on each issue. Sometimes Trump the pragmatist sides with conservatives and other times he doesn’t… and anyone who works for him should always keep that in mind.
Chris Wallace: Now, Bob, if you believe the reports of papers like your “Washington Post,” he’s down, conceivably out. What’s going on?
Bob Woodward: You — you can believe that. I mean that’s true. But you — there is ascendancy and then there is crashing and you will see stories about so-and-so’s winning and then two weeks later they’re fired. The question here is, who is Trump? And Trump is a pragmatist, just like those policy changes. We knew for a long time he was going to have a two track strategy on Russia, reach out to Putin, but also be tough on a number of things.
In terms of his staff, as best I can tell, he’ll — it’s a menu for him. I’ll take this one. I’ll take that one. And I’m not going to have dessert. I’m not going to have Bannon. I’m not going to have — and so it’s — it’s — I would not reach any sweeping conclusions.
The real question is, as an executive, is this going to work for him, because you’re going to get stories like in my newspaper, which is quite well done, that there is a battle going on and the battle and the discussion should be about the policy, not the personalities.
Chris Wallace: But I don’t have to tell you, personnel is policy.
Bob Woodward: It is, but — but Trump is clearly that, you know, we know from the campaign, three campaign managers, he’s ruthless. You come and you go. And the people who are wise about him realize that they may be here now, but maybe not tomorrow.
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