New York magazine Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi told Mediaite former President Donald Trump’s journey from colorful “buffoon” to criminal defendant is “very sad” — but pleaded to the social media gallery “Don’t come for me!”
Nuzzi was a guest on this week’s edition of Mediaite’s new Press Club podcast, hosted by Aidan McLaughlin.
In their wide-ranging interview, Nuzzi and McLaughlin traded memories of a simpler time when Trump was just a “tabloid villain” who made a great Halloween costume for future Mediaite editors:
OLIVIA NUZZI: I had to go look for like, the public information office the other day, which is on a huge an adjacent floor. And there are people in cells on that floor where they’re like officers sitting outside the cell, like, you know, out of a cartoon, you know, with their keys. And it’s it’s sort of just shocking to be in that type of setting with with him. It’s very–I’m aware, like when I’ve been describing it, especially when I’m on like MSNBC or something. I’m like, I know that I’m feeding into this sort of like resistance, like resistance bait.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: Porn. Yeah.OLIVIA NUZZI: Yeah. And I’m aware of that. And I’m trying not to be overly, you know, dramatic about it,
but it is a very dramatic scene.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s like Trump looking dour and– Yeah. That the miserable.OLIVIA NUZZI: The judge chastising him and threatening jail time.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: (laughs) I mean, it it is one of the rare instances that we’ve seen of the last like I’d say decade where Trump is not in control. (Yeah.) And where he’s powerless.OLIVIA NUZZI: Yeah. I find it very sad.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: Which is a very interesting setting. Yeah.OLIVIA NUZZI: I find it very sad. Not, like like. Oh, I feel so bad for him.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: You don’t feel bad for him. (laughs)OLIVIA NUZZI: Don’t come for me! But, like, it’s it’s a sad. It’s just a weird, sad thing. It’s like to go. I covered him here obviously in 2015 and 2016. I grew up in the Tri-State area. I grew up in new Jersey. My dad worked in Manhattan for the sanitation department. He’d bring home the Daily News in the New York Post every day. So he’s like the great tabloid villain.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: It’s funny, I grew up in New York. (Yeah) I feel like that’s something that people that maybe grew up in different places didn’t really understand. It’s that, like we grew up hearing aboutDonald Trump, and your parents would be like, this guy’s such a buffoon. When you were a kid. Yeah.OLIVIA NUZZI: I think we’re, like, around the same age. Like The Apprentice came.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: Out when we were in.OLIVIA NUZZI: Elementary school, right? I know that was a national phenomenon or international, and kids knew all about him. Would, like, dress up as him. You probably would have made a really good Trump as a kid.AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: That’s the most insulting thing anyone’s ever said to me. But thank you, I, somebody once did say that I looked like Eric Trump, really hurt.OLIVIA NUZZI: That’s not true. No. One time someone. If it makes you feel better someone. Well, I was like, you know, maybe like 15. Someone was like, you look like Celine Dion. I was like, thanks. And were like, “you know, like, before she had all that surgery.”AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: Oh no! Pre-surgery? Come on!OLIVIA NUZZI: It’s like, famously unattractive Celine Dion. Anyway, don’t listen to them.
Watch above via Mediaite’s new Press Club podcast. Watch the full episode here.
Watch and subscribe to Mediaite’s YouTube for new episodes of Press Club, and listen to the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.