New York Times’ Ezra Klein Says His Podcast Won’t Be a ‘Resistance Show’ During Trump’s Second Term – Dismisses ‘MAGA Normalization’ Concerns

New York Times reporter Ezra Klein insists his podcast won’t be a “resistance show” under the new Trump administration and questions liberal orthodoxy, saying President-elect Donald Trump and his movement are “abnormal”.

On Tuesday’s “The Ezra Klein Show,” Klein answered questions from listeners.

One focused on Klein’s past invitation to Trump allies to appear on his show, something the listener found “extremely enlightening” but which “presents the current political scene as ‘normal’.” » in a way that is not.

“Normalizing MAGA, normalizing Trump by having certain people on the show: Do you have any thoughts on this, on this, and this accusation? Klein’s podcast editor, Claire Gordon, summed it up.

“I don’t know what counts or doesn’t count as usual,” Klein responded.

“On the one hand, do I think Donald Trump is a normal genius or even very stable? I don’t know. On the other hand, he was elected or almost president three times.

“So who’s more normal, your glasses-wearing Brooklyn podcast host you’re listening to right now… or Donald Trump? I think the effort to treat him as continually abnormal is a way of trying to blind others, including him,” he continued.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t object to what he’s doing or what his people are doing…There are lines that seem very clear to me. Especially by militarizing the government. And I want to be very attentive to that.

“But I want to be pretty clear: don’t expect this show to be a resistance show. I don’t do that and I don’t have those interviews because I’m open-minded. I am a journalist. I’m curious. I try to understand things so I can form my own opinion,” he added.

The Times reporter stressed the importance of trying to “understand” Trump and his administration’s actions, even when he vehemently opposes them, in order to find a “balance” that he might view as a challenge over the next four years.

“I think there will be things within the Trump administration that go straight down the authoritarian path. He is the one who is actually trying to make what is academically called an authoritarian breakthrough. And there will be other things – maybe the Department of Government Efficiency or things that happened during Marco Rubio’s tenure as Secretary of State or tariffs – that are not like that and need to be just be reported as normal policy,” Klein said. .

“And so that’s another dimension that I think the effort to make normal binary – things are or aren’t normal – makes difficult. It is an administration. He will rule the country for the next four years. And some of that will just be a matter of politics and politics. And some parts could be something else entirely. An effort to change or corrupt the system itself.

“And I intend to try to take everything at its level and just because one thing happens doesn’t mean you have to cover up the other thing – one way or the other. I think it’s going to be really difficult to balance. To be honest, I did less of that during the first Trump administration,” he admitted.

Klein then summarized how liberals treated Trump’s first presidency as “illegitimate” between Trump’s loss of the popular vote in 2016, the Russia investigation as well as his own administration’s constant “leaks” about ” what a maniac he was.”

“It was much easier, even for those who talked about it, to dismiss it as aberrant. Because, in a way, his own administration called him an aberrant. And it seemed possible that this was just a one-time fluke in American politics: the butterfly fluttered its wings, and we got it. And that’s not what it used to be. It kind of wasn’t what it was back then,” Klein said.

“And my first job on this show is to be a good reporter. I understand that the show is an act of ongoing reporting, and I’m not a good journalist and I’m not doing a good job if I’m not actively reporting on this administration.

“So we will see what form it takes. A lot of them don’t want to talk to me, but it won’t be closed-door politics because Trump crosses certain lines in one area – and then there won’t be any more discussion about tariffs or anything else. That’s not how I’m going to do my job,” Klein added.