During the Thursday, December 12 broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” with anchor Jake Tapper, New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman appeared as a guest and, alongside Tapper, compared President-Elect Donald Trump to a dinosaur predator in an attempt to discredit him and his expected style of rule in his upcoming administration.
The incident came when the two discussed Trump’s recent selection by TIME magazine as its Person of the Year for 2024, with Tapper asking Haberman whether President-elect Trump is more likely to govern as a “Reaganesque” leader in his second term or as a Jurassic Park-style “velociraptor,” a wreakor of havoc. They both said the raptor comparison is more apt.
Haberman, beginning by commenting on Trump’s mindset, said, “These are things that he’s clearly reveling in. And you could see it when he was there today. In terms of his mindset, you know, he was actually a little more explicit on certain things than he has been. It’s also just a reminder, Jake. Yes, he certainly was much more accessible than President Biden or Vice President Harris, but he actually has not been that accessible to mainstream media for a while.”
She continued, “A lot of podcasts. He has not done a ton of interviews. He is starting to do a few more. So he talked about, you know, medicine abortion. He actually was dodging answering questions about that. He talked about following the law, but going up to the maximum of what the law allows. And what we have seen is that his — his lawyers have repeatedly pressed for a maximalist interpretation of what the law would allow.”
She then said, commenting on Trump’s plans for DC, “So what it tells me, and I think tells you, is that he is coming into D.C. really feeling quite powerful and feeling as if he can, you know, test what he wants to test. I do think it’s important for people to remember he did do the job once before, and so he is coming in with a better understanding of how Washington works. Is he the most detail-oriented human on policy? No, he did come in last time, actually, with a policy agenda that he wanted to enact, and he got totally stymied by, you know, someone in his own administration and flummoxed by the various investigations into him. He’s not facing any of that right now. So it’ll be interesting to see what it looks like.”
That’s when Tapper introduced the velociraptor comparison. He said, “Well, the question then becomes, does this knowledge that he has, does that mean that he will be more Reaganesque in his delivery? Or is it like the velociraptor who tests — tests the door in Jurassic Park and then is now figuring out how he can more successfully wreak havoc?”
Responding, Haberman said, “Right. Several people who have worked for him over the years have used the Jurassic Park analogy, so I think that seems.” Tapper chimed back in with, “Yes. I didn’t make it up.” Haberman then told him, “Right. It seems like. Well, I’m just saying, if you have to pick which one you think it’s going to be.”
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Continuing, she made the Reagan comparison, saying it is inaccurate. In her words: “I don’t think it’s going to be Reaganesque delivery. I think he is going to say things like, I’ll be fair to you, as long as you’re fair to me, which we have heard him and his version of fairness is not necessarily everybody else’s.”
Watch them here:
Giggles! Jake Tapper enjoys the metaphor that Trump is coming back to a second term like the velociraptors in "Jurassic Park" learning how to wreak havoc.
From the people who think you shouldn't compare MS-13 gangsters to animals…. pic.twitter.com/mOmpvwlC4Q
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) December 14, 2024