Carl Hiaasen On Donald Trump: 'It's Frightening Some Days And Comical Some Days'
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Carl Hiaasen has seen all manner of politician in his years as a Miami Herald columnist, but few like Donald Trump.
"He's the gift that keeps on giving," Hiaasen said recently. "I've got four years of not worrying about what to write, because every week it's something new. It doesn't mean you are not a serious citizen if you laugh once in a while."
As President Trump approached the 60-day mark of his presidency, Hiaasen reflected on the first two months.
"Well, it's everything we always thought it would be, isn't it?" he noted. "It's frightening some days and comical some days."
Following Trump's unorthodox campaign, Hiaasen said he held out hope the Trump Administration might be a little different.
"You went in not knowing if [campaign Trump] was really him," he said. "Or was it just what he had to do to get elected. And now you see, `Oh that appears to be him. That's the guy.'"
Hiaasen continued: "I should be, because of my age and because of being born in the Deep South, I should be the perfect Trump guy. And I look at him and I say he's just like a lot of guys my age. He just sits around and watches a lot of TV. You can see him sort of shambling in after a night of not sleeping and having the big screen on and he's tweeting. He's got nothing more important to do - the planet is basically on fire - he's got nothing more important to do than tweet the hosts of Fox & Friends. It is absolutely comic genius."
Hiaasen is amused whenever he hears Trump decry the media as the enemy of the people.
"This is a guy who would be miserable without the media focusing on him, he lives and breathes for the media coverage," he said, adding he is not worried by Trump's attempts to delegitimize the press by calling what they do fake news.
"If the press were delegitimized [former National Security Advisor] Michael Flynn would still be in his job," Hiaasen said. "He got caught. There was no alternative fact to that."
The notion that Trump can push his agenda by only appealing to the alt-right press is ridiculous to Hiaasen. He noted even some of the folks at Fox News are starting to ask him tougher and tougher questions.
"He's going to have fewer and fewer places to hide," Hiaasen said. "Most people in this country don't even know how to find Breitbart. They don't even know what it is. They think it is something you wax on your car.
"Look we've been through some stuff in this country, heavy stuff. We survived Nixon and I think everybody is going to survive Trump."
