Latest David Brooks Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• If Donald Trump wants to fire somebody for not getting Obamacare repealed, he should fire himself.

  David Brooks

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• If you're running a successful administration, then you're loyal to people who are basically good who make a mistake. And that seems to be essential for any organization. And it should be essential if this were a normal administration, rather than a fiefdom, where everybody simply tries to give Donald Trump a good headline every day.

  David Brooks

  Running, Mistake, Successful

  Source: www.pbs.org

• Politics really is a team sport. You really have to work the whole system to get somewhere down the road.

  David Brooks

  Sports, Team

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• The madman theory is that you can be a successful deterrer if you - if they think you could be crazy. And so I think it can be very effective, so long as you're not actually crazy.

  David Brooks

  Crazy, Successful, Thinking

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• Clearly, politics is a team sport. Trump is not so much of a team player.

  David Brooks

  Sports, Team, Player

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• The North Korean regime is extremely fiery, extremely insecure, sometimes hysterical. And when you're around somebody who's screaming and unstable, the last thing you want to do is add to the instability with your own unstable, hysterical rhetoric.

  David Brooks

  Insecure, Korean, Sometimes

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• It's always dangerous to overinterpret what Donald Trump says at any one moment.

  David Brooks

  Moments, Dangerous

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• If it's all win-loss, then you do whatever you can to win and to make money and to beat the deal.

  David Brooks

  Winning, Making Money

  Source: www.pbs.org

• My colleague Ross Douthat wrote that any time you give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, he always lets you down.

  David Brooks

  Giving, Doubt, Benefit Of The Doubt

  Source: www.pbs.org

• We still are America though. We're still a country that is a country of social mobility. We're still a country of immigrants. We're still a country with common ancestors. And reviving the civics of America and the idea that we're going to be united, at least not right now, but in some common future, and talking in that hopeful way that Martin Luther King did, that Abraham Lincoln did, seems to me that's the way.

  David Brooks

  Country, Hopeful, Common

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

• For those of us who believe in it, there has to be a movement that says, "We still believe in trade. We still believe in international engagement for America. But for those losers or those who are suffering, we've got your back."

  David Brooks

  Believe, Suffering, Loser

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

• I think the twenty-first century happened, basically. That this century started on 9/11. And basically, it's been a century of counter reaction to globalization and the meritocracy. And a good century for 72 nations have gotten more authoritarian. We've had Brexit. We have Le Pen rising in France. We've just got a lot of these types all around the world. And the people who are suffering from globalization and the meritocracy are saying, "No more. You know, we get a voice too."

  David Brooks

  Thinking, People, Suffering

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

• I can't imagine that being in the Trump Cabinet will be a very important job. I do think this will be a White House-run administration with a teeny-tiny group of people surrounding him, including his family maybe.

  David Brooks

  Thinking, People, Important

  Source: www.pbs.org

• Donald Trump understands sense of belonging. And a lot of people think globalization, any time you make any particularity, you're sort of offending some other group. And a lot of people in this country think they belong to America anymore, and he at least appeals to some sense of belonging. I like the idea that we belong to Western traditions, so I'm glad he appeals to that sort of thing.

  David Brooks

  Country, Thinking, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

• There was this famous clash of civilization thesis from Samuel Huntington, a political theorist. And the idea was that Western civilization is at war with Islam and maybe some of the other civilizations around the world. And I don't agree with that. But I do think there is such a thing as Western civilization. I think it starts with the Greeks and the Romans. Then it goes through the Enlightenment - or the Reformation, the Enlightenment. It goes through the scientific age. And it somewhat defines some of the cultures and mores of Europe and North America and some other countries.

  David Brooks

  Country, War, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

• The question is whether Donald Trump recognizes that Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. And I guess there's no indication that he regards Putin as in any way a bad guy.

  David Brooks

  Guy

  Source: www.pbs.org

• We know the 65-point policy points, to the extent that they exist, but is Hillary Clinton willing to be vulnerable, is she willing to be funny, is she willing to be both authoritative, but also real? And so less what she says than the emotional tone she sets. It takes a lot of confidence to be a vulnerable speaker on this stage. And sometimes she hasn't always projected the confidence it takes to be in some ways weak. But that's what I think people were looking for, that moment of human connection.

  David Brooks

  Real, Emotional, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I would like to see an animating passion. Tim Kaine actually had a good line. What animated you before you got into politics? And she actually does have a story there to tell about children. And so drawing that animating passion will do good.

  David Brooks

  Children, Passion, Animated

  Source: www.pbs.org

• The politics is broken up and down. And Trump may emerge from a reality TV world that is much more powerful than we think. And there is the prospect that this is where we are, which is an horrific thought.

  David Brooks

  Powerful, Reality, Thinking

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

• If you withdraw from the game, you're out of the game. And we have withdrawn from the game. And we said Bashar Assad has to go. He's going to stay. So we're out of the game.

  David Brooks

  Source: www.pbs.org

• The fact that there could be an ISIS West Bank, the fact that the Palestinian government in Gaza doesn't even acknowledge Israel's right to exist, the fact of constant terror, delegitimization campaigns in the Palestinian schools, these are all much bigger facts. And for the Barack Obama administration to focus on this one fact, almost, not to the expense, but to diminish some of the others which are much more important, is to cast all the blame on Israel and to take the U.N. policy toward Israel, which has been longstanding, and sort of surrender to it.

  David Brooks

  School, Focus, Important

  Source: www.pbs.org

• Bibi Netanyahu, froze the settlements and offered to go toward a two-state solution. The Palestinians didn't take him up on it. Historically, we have had a series of these offers. And the settlements themselves are not the keystone here. It seems to me myopic and bizarre that at the last moment, the Barack Obama administration would surrender the whole balanced array of policies that are obstacles to peace and focus on the one that is most detrimental to Israel.

  David Brooks

  Focus, Obstacles, Moments

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I think the Barack Obama position and the majority position of American Jews and a lot of Americans is a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. Settlements get in the way of that. If they're not stopped soon, there is no prospect for that type of solution.

  David Brooks

  Thinking, Palestine, Settlement

  Source: www.pbs.org

• Russia has a very sophisticated, advanced attack on U.S. businesses and U.S. government and U.S. institutions. And it's not like Donald Trump is going to be walking away from this. He will be spending a lot of time on it, if he's any sort of normal president.

  David Brooks

  President, Sophisticated, Walking

  Source: www.pbs.org

• Of course I don't know what's going on in that meeting on in the mind of Donald Trump. But I do know one of the things President Barack Obama was struck by was how much time he spent on cyber-security as president. And one of the things he said was that, in the years ahead, the next president will be spending even more time. And cyber-security isn't a thing that goes away after this election. It's a constant flow.

  David Brooks

  Mind, President, Election

  Source: www.pbs.org