Ross Douthat got the soft-focus Trump on Sunday night.
The reflective one. The trapped con artist, playing a bad hand at a tough table. The one who allowed that his deportation machine “might be too tough,” floated an immigration deal with the new Democratic majorities, and said he could probably go six months without insulting Democrats if it got him something.
Washington’s professional optimists spent Sunday night and this morning parsing it like a papal encyclical. A pivot? A chastened president, humbled by a midterm massacre, reaching across the aisle?
Here’s your answer. Trump taped that interview Friday morning. About an hour later he pushed Susie Wiles out and handed the chief of staff’s office to Stephen Miller.
The interview was a con, just enough fake contrition to lure Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer into the most obvious traps since Wile E. Coyote.
And sure as hell, they’re going to take the damn bait.
