It's good even though it is a direct transcript, including all the times he says the wrong thing and catches himself. You can tell that he knows what he is talking about, but sometimes his mouth gets out in front of his brain.
I'd love to see Trump sit down for a similar interview with Time, along with a similar transcript, where everything that comes out of his mouth is written down, verbatim. But I don't think he has the balls for that.
I agree, clearly an intelligent man and a worthwhile read. His take on Ukraine is spot on.
A few of those nonsequitors seem to be related to battling a cold (eg, the comment on his voice) or referring to other aides who are perhaps moving through the room. TIME should do a better job with annotations in these cases, and not just the one time he mixed up Putin and Jinping.
Also, no journalist would ever pose some of these questions to Trump. Values based vs practical base? The man would think you were talking about baseball
Agreed. I thought the bit on "values-based" and "practicals-based" alliances was interesting. Diplomacy is overwhelmingly complex and I'm glad I'm no diplomat, for my own sanity.