Latest E. J. Dionne Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• If you really want to change the Trump administration, you have to change the guy at the top. And that's not happening anytime soon. But, again, where I do think where you will see some movement is on this economic side, where I suspect, for example, this is a victory for China, because Trump was - I mean, Bannon was the hawk on China trade.

  E. J. Dionne

  Mean, Thinking, Guy

  Source: www.pbs.org

• The madman theory can work, but it only works if it's strategic. And I think one of the problems that President Trump faces is people don't really know how much strategy is here and how much is he just sort of talking off the top of his head. And I think North Korea is a really classic case of a potentially insoluble problem, a problem that you have to manage.

  E. J. Dionne

  Thinking, People, President

  Source: www.npr.org

• The Democrats want to celebrate their successes but don't want to look out of touch with the people who haven't risen much in the last decade or so really.

  E. J. Dionne

  People, Looks, Want

  Source: www.npr.org

• It sure looks like [Vladimir] Putin did this [hack DNS site]. And we all need to take this seriously.

  E. J. Dionne

  Needs, Looks, Putin

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• [I think there are a lot of Americans who are very scared ] that Donald Trump and his campaign, or his future administration, is just in denial. They just want to say, no, no, no, [Vladimir] Putin couldn't possibly have done this.

  E. J. Dionne

  Thinking, Administration, Campaigns

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• I think there are a lot of Americans who are very scared, scared that [Vladimir] Putin manipulated us, worried about Rex Tillerson, the winner of Russia's order of friendship as the secretary of state.

  E. J. Dionne

  Thinking, Russia, Order

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• I think this is a scary thing [hacking] that does have to be taken out of a partisan context. And one of the best pieces of news this morning is a joint statement, Senator [Chuck] Schumer, Senator [Harry] Reid for the Democrats,John McCain and Lindsey Graham from the Republicans, saying we have to get to the bottom of this.

  E. J. Dionne

  Morning, Taken, Thinking

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• The Russians stole from the Democratic National Committee with hacking.

  E. J. Dionne

  Hacking, Democratic, Committees

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• [ Donald Trump is] candidate who said he has more confidence in Vladimir Putin's strength than in Barack Obama's strength. His closeness to Putin is a very scary thing for the country and the fact that the news was dominated for 33 days I think it was by WikiLeaks stories, that had an impact on states that were decided by a knife-edge.

  E. J. Dionne

  Country, Thinking, Knives

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• The closeness [of Rex Tillerson] to [Vladimir] Putin will be one of the unifying issues between the Republican critics and Democratic critics.

  E. J. Dionne

  Issues, Republican, Putin

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• On the question of opposition, I think there are - when you want to send a signal if you're on the Democratic side that this is a very right wing cabinet at odds with so much of what [Donald] Trump said. And it's also going to be fascinating to see if your Republican Party in the congress actually goes along with those aspects of the Trump plan that are designed to raise wages.

  E. J. Dionne

  Party, Thinking, Wings

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• You have this all the way through this cabinet so that I think there are a lot of other things to worry about [Donald] Trump. But in conventional political terms, this is a cabinet that I think is going to have a very hard time delivering to the base that Trump courted in this election.

  E. J. Dionne

  Thinking, Hard Times, Worry

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• I wish we had more [Dwight] Eisenhower Republicans in this [Donald]Trump cabinet.

  E. J. Dionne

  Wish, Dwight Eisenhower, Cabinets

• What's really striking here is that a candidate who ran as the Paladin of the working class who'd deliver them picks a guy who heads a fast-food company, [Donald] Trump says he wants to bring back manufacturing.

  E. J. Dionne

  Class, Guy, Want

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• What I am really worried about is that Donald Trump steps outside norms about, for example, what he does about his business. If he holds on to his business or just lets his kids run it, this opens up enormous possibilities for conflicts of interest.

  E. J. Dionne

  Running, Kids, Example

  Source: www.npr.org

• The New York Times had a headline on its website - Trump Turning To Ultra Wealthy To Steer Economic Policy. This doesn't sound very populist to me. Today's commerce secretary, the names being talked about for treasury secretary, I think there will be populist talk but maybe no populist action.

  E. J. Dionne

  New York, Thinking, Names

  Source: www.npr.org

• I think Donald Trump simply needs to make himself look less bigoted, less dangerous, more comfortable to people.

  E. J. Dionne

  Thinking, People, Needs

  Source: www.npr.org

• Common decency is a core part of who people are.

  E. J. Dionne

  Common Decency, People, Core

  Source: www.pbs.org

• Politically, Donald Trump doesn't seem to care much about what he says. He gauges the effect. Sometimes, in the middle of a speech, he will change his direction if the audience doesn't like him.

  E. J. Dionne

  Gauges, Care, Speech

  Source: www.pbs.org

• In the Trump language, words change their meaning day by day depending on his own political needs.

  E. J. Dionne

  Language Words, Political, Needs

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I actually think there are more Republicans than people realize who would be sympathetic to immigration reform in the rank and file. I think the lesson for Jeb Bush is politicians shouldn't write books with long lead times.

  E. J. Dionne

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "Week In Politics: Unemployment, Rand Paul's Filibuster". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. March 8, 2013.

• Here you had John McCain and Lindsey Graham in a very principled way standing up and defending Barack Obama. You had people like Gene Robinson and a lot of other liberals, who said, and this I personally agree with, however flawed Rand Paul was as a messenger, we need a debate about this. The administration has not been forthcoming enough about its drone policy.

  E. J. Dionne

  People, Drones, Needs

  "Week In Politics: Unemployment, Rand Paul's Filibuster". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. March 8, 2013.

• We have pursued public policies that kind of hold the recovery back, but the private economy is really starting to roll.

  E. J. Dionne

  Recovery, Kind, Economy

  "Week In Politics: Unemployment, Rand Paul's Filibuster". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. March 8, 2013.

• What is working in the economy is a natural comeback plus some effects of the policies we've been following. But I'm sort of worried about the long term effects.

  E. J. Dionne

  Long, Comeback, Worried

  "Week In Politics: Unemployment, Rand Paul's Filibuster". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block, www.npr.org. March 8, 2013.

• The money matters. And secret money is corrupting, secret money is dangerous, secret money leads to scandal.

  E. J. Dionne

  Secret, Matter, Scandal