A.B. Stoddard on Trump’s Psyche—and The Implications for 2028

Conversations with Bill Kristol

Government, News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“This branding binge [Trump] has been on: with everything he’s trying to have put his name on. To build the White House ballroom, the arch in front of Arlington Cemetery. And the war and military adventurism. It’s a way of trying to cement his state permanently as a dominant figure in history, because he knows he’s going to die.” So argues veteran political reporter A.B. Stoddard in a bracing analysis of President Trump’s character and conduct during his second term. Reflecting on the last ten years, Stoddard argues that Trump’s aspirations to cement his role as a dominant figure in history have increased dramatically—and the acceleration of his actions must be taken seriously. For Stoddard, above all, this requires us to confront questions about the 2028 elections, including the possibility that Trump might refuse to leave office or try to keep the presidency in the family. Stoddard warns against the assumption that normalcy will return after 2028: “People just want to hope that we’re going to keep with term-limited presidents.... I don’t think we know what’s coming.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome back to conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined again today by an old friend, former colleague at the bulwark,
0:21.9	veteran reporter and commentator and analyst of all things political, A.B. Stoddard.
0:27.0	So we're going to have a conversation about Donald Trump and his psyche, but not just his psyche,
0:32.7	how it affects actual policies and what he's likely to do over the next couple of years.
0:37.9	And AB has been such a shrewd student of Donald Trump's psychology and soul, if he has one,
0:44.9	in psyche that she's the perfect guest to discuss this.
0:48.1	So, AB, thanks for joining me today.
0:49.9	It's great to be with you, Bill.
0:51.8	It's a favorite topic that you and I have indulged in for the slow these many years. We have, and people do regard it sort of as an indulgence. And I myself have at times, you know, let's talk about what he's doing. Let's talk about the real threats, not psychoanalyze him from afar. But honestly, I don't think you could understand. I mean, you made this point repeatedly, and you made it very, very well in the conversation we had almost
1:14.2	exactly a year ago, actually, early April, 20, 2025, shortly after a couple of months, three months
1:20.7	into Trump's first term. And you made the point that his psyche really matters. I'm just going
1:27.0	read a few sentences.
1:28.0	You said them as this was, again, this was early April.
1:30.1	So this is a lot of stuff hadn't happened yet.
1:33.6	And you said, you find among your friends and family and peers, people aren't following this that closely, that they think there are some guardrails that are going to magically appear like airbags in a car accident.
1:45.1	All this nonsense will stop. But you said that's not what it happens. It accelerates and it grows because the more
1:50.5	power you give him, the more he'll take. And the less pushback that he gets, the freer he is.
1:55.4	And so I think that what we've seen in the last couple of months is that he's been given permission
1:58.8	and he will take it. That's the way Trump is.
2:01.7	He believes his pathologies create a story for him that this is what people want.
2:07.0	And it creates a permission structure from war destruction on his part.
2:12.2	So very, I think, pressure it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Conversations with Bill Kristol, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Conversations with Bill Kristol and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.