The woman inside Trump's head

Your definitive guide to women, politics and power.

Sep 30, 2022 View in browser   By Katelyn Fossett Photo by Jesse Dittmar for POLITICO Good morning, rulers! Are you watching Blonde? The reviews have been a wild ride. This Jezebel one and this New York Times one make the film sound disastrous. I'm curious to hear what you all think. Email me at kfossett@politico.com . Thank you to Maya Parthasarathy for your help putting the newsletter together! POLITICO Magazine is out this morning with a profile of Maggie Haberman, the New York Times reporter who has proven to be indispensable in scoring big Donald Trump scoops. And, apparently, she was also indispensable when it comes to unpacking his psychology. "I love being with her. She's like my psychiatrist," Trump said to two staffers during an interview Haberman conducted with him for her book — a notion that Haberman herself dismisses. She can also be controversial, POLITICO Magazine writer Michael Kruse acknowledges in the profile. Some critics say she is too cozy with Trump and too driven by access to him. But, Kruse writes, Haberman "certainly is no Trump apologist or propagandist." The article also examines a tension in Haberman's life between her work life and her life outside of work. Like many ambitious and accomplished professionals — including many women — Haberman has experienced guilt over the limited time she is able to devote to her children and her spouse. In a conversation with her, Kruse describes something her father, former New York Times reporter Clyde Haberman, told him in an interview. Clyde told Kruse he imagined Maggie was resentful of him. Being the child or spouse of a journalist, Clyde said, was not an easy lot in life. "I think that's accurate," Maggie tells Kruse. "And I think my own children have that toward me. And I feel endless guilt about it. And it's not anything I will ever be able to reconcile in my soul." Here are a few takeaways from the piece about one of the most important Trump reporters on the beat, and, quite possibly, the woman who has gotten inside his head the most. New York played a crucial role in her development as a journalist. Haberman grew up in New York City and had her first big journalism job at the New York Post , the tabloid Trump courted throughout much of his pre-political life. While there, she forged relationships with other reporters who would go on to be well-known for their coverage of national politics, such as Jonathan Lemire, Glenn Thrush and Ben Smith. She became known for a fast pace and constant multitasking. "Maggie's like fucking changing a diaper with one hand, holding a BlackBerry in the other, and breaking stories, and I'm, like, 'What the fuck am I doing?' Liz Benjamin of the Daily Newsonce said, as Kruse recalls in the profile. Haberman left the Post for a stint at the New York Daily News, but returned to the Post, which gave her a special understanding of how Trump saw media and publicity and how he built his brand. "It [the Post] melds power with celebrity and gossip. It's all these things that he loves," Haberman tells Kruse. And the Post gave Haberman and Trump common ground. "The New York Post trained Donald Trump just like it trained Maggie," Allen Salkin, a former Post colleague who also wrote a book about Trump, tells Kruse. "If you understand what played in the Post, and those of us who were there figured that out, you understood Donald Trump's brain." Her journalist father's influence shaped her in more than one way. Haberman met Mayor Ed Koch when she went to visit her father in the press room at City Hall, and she wrote about the experience in a feature for kids in the New York Daily News. But when she discusses her father's influence on her journalism career, she explains she didn't learn that much from him because she didn't live with him — her parents divorced, and she lived with her mother. She was eight when her father left to be a foreign correspondent, Kruse writes, and Clyde stayed overseas for 13 years. When Kruse asks about how that affected her, Haberman says she prefers not to talk about it because it's "painful," and that she channeled that pain into her work. When Trump was elected, Haberman briefed the Times newsroom on what to expect. In the years leading up to his campaign, when Trump was giving speeches at CPAC in New Hampshire, Haberman was taking seriously the prospect that Trump might one day run for office, even while others were slow to come around to the idea. In 2016, when Trump won the election, Haberman's colleagues at the New York Times, where Haberman was then working, recognized it was her moment. A staffer in the Times' Washington bureau sent her a note: "This is great for you." Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington bureau chief, asked Haberman and a colleague to give everyone a briefing on what to expect. Their advice, as Kruse reports: "All conventional rules were off the table. Get ready to be lied to. " She calls her work "my curse and my salvation." As a journalist on the biggest beat at the country's biggest newspaper, Haberman perhaps predictably struggles with work-life balance, as she tells Kruse. She tells him about important family moments she has missed with her family, and how she worries that her children have the same kind of resentment toward her that she has toward her own father. But ultimately, when Kruse asks her, "Are you addicted to this work?", she says yes. One hundred percent," she says. "I think you knew the answer to your question. It's my curse and my salvation."   Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: What if we could reshape society to benefit everyone equally? POLITICO Focus connected with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to learn about how women are remaking communities into sustainable, healthy and inclusive places. Join the Conversation.   POLITICO Special Report Joe Raedle/Getty Images "Patients face barriers to routine care as doctors warn of ripple effects from broad abortion bans," by Alice Miranda Ollstein and Daniel Payne for POLITICO: "Patients seeking drugs to treat everything from arthritis to acne at Walgreens and CVS pharmacies in the dozen-plus states with near-total abortion bans must show extra documentation to prove that they're not using the drugs to end a pregnancy, the companies confirmed to POLITICO. Those who can't are, in some cases, being turned away. "The chronic illness advocacy group Global Healthy Living Foundation said its members in Tennessee, Texas and other states with abortion restrictions have been refused prescriptions for methotrexate — a drug for patients with lupus and other illnesses that also can be used to induce an abortion in the case of an ectopic pregnancy — and they're lobbying those states' governors and local officials to intervene. "And multiple patients in Wisconsin experiencing miscarriages have been refused the medication misoprostol — which is also used for abortions — because pharmacists feared prosecution under the state's 1849 abortion ban, according to the midwest chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "Most patients eventually obtain their medications — in some cases after traveling to several pharmacies — but the extra steps can delay access for hours or days. "Three months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the country's leading organizations representing physicians and pharmacists told POLITICO that broad and vague language in many states' anti-abortion laws – many of which were written years or, in some cases, decades before the court ruled – are blocking patients from accessing medications that have nothing to do with abortion or contraception and are frightening providers who said they feel caught between legal risks and tending to patients." "5 ways California is protecting abortion," by Victoria Colliver for POLITICO … "Visiting DMZ, Harris condemns North Korean missile 'provocation, '" by Kelly Hooper for POLITICO   Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: In the Round: A conversation with today's leaders.   Number of the Week Read more here. MUST READS Francis Chung/EENews/POLITICO via AP Images "A congressman's insult highlights the misogyny women in the climate movement face," by Jessica Kutz for The 19th: "During a House committee hearing on the climate crisis and the fossil fuel industry on September 15, Raya Salter gave expert testimony on the disinformation tactics the oil and gas industry has used to obscure its role in causing climate change and highlighting the industry's harm on frontline communities. "Salter is a lawyer and founder of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center, a public interest firm, who also serves on the New York State Climate Action Council and has spent her career working on energy policy and law. "But her testimony became overshadowed by an exchange that occurred later in the hearing with Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins. During his five minutes of questioning he began to talk over Salter, raising his voice and repeatedly calling her young lady — Salter is 49, Higgins is 61 — and at one point referring to her as 'boo.' "The exchange prompted New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to apologize on behalf of the committee. 'For the gentleman of Louisiana and the comfort he felt in yelling at you like that, there's more than one way to get a point across.' She added: 'Frankly, men who treat women like that in public, I fear how they treat them in private.' The hearing made headlines, but not for Salter's testimony—that became buried under the controversy. "The sparring was emblematic of broader misogynistic undertones in attacks on women in the environmental movement, experts say. These attacks go as far back as the 1960s, when Rachel Carson, who exposed the dangers of the then-widely used pesticide DDT in her book 'Silent Spring,' was framed by her critics as 'hysterically overemphatic' and depicted as a witch in a chemical industry magazine." " Women said coronavirus shots affect periods. New study shows they're right," by Amanda Morris for the Washington Post: "Not long after the rollout of coronavirus vaccines last year, women around the country began posting on social media about what they believed was a strange side effect: changes to their periods. "Now, new research shows that many of the complaints were valid. A study of nearly 20,000 people around the world shows that getting vaccinated against covid can change the timing of the menstrual cycle. Vaccinated people experienced, on average, about a one-day delay in getting their periods, compared with those who hadn't been vaccinated. "The data for the study , published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, was taken from a popular period-tracking app called Natural Cycles and included people from around the world, but most were from North America, Britain and Europe. The researchers used 'de-identified' data from the app to compare menstrual cycles among 14,936 participants who were vaccinated and 4,686 who were not." " Women are returning to (paid) work after the pandemic forced many to leave their jobs," by Scott Horsley for NPR: "Qynisha Jordan went back to work this summer after being out of the job market for more than two years. It was a welcome change, after spending most of the pandemic at home with her children. "'The best part has definitely been having conversations with adults and adult interaction,' says Jordan, a key account manager for PepsiCo in Atlanta. 'That's been awesome.' "Jordan is one of more than 2 million women who left the workforce when the pandemic struck, and like many, she took her time before going back. … "As of August, more than 49 million women aged 25 to 54 were working or looking for work. That's slightly more women than were in the workforce in February 2020. The return has been especially pronounced among Black and Latina women. "A number of factors likely contributed to the rebound. More reliable, in-person schooling undoubtedly freed some mothers to go back to work. Others might have done so because the public health outlook has improved. "On a less positive note, [economist Betsey Stevenson of the University of Michigan] suspects high inflation may be forcing some women back into the job market." " Whoopi Goldberg Will Not Shut Up, Thank You Very Much," by Jazmine Hughes for the New York Times Magazine   Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: As indispensable members of the workforce, champions of civic engagement, and powerful consumers, women support and invest in the communities they inhabit. However, with racial injustice, major disparities in health care, steeper corporate ladders and more, it's easy to question if their communities are reciprocating. But what if we could reshape society to benefit everyone equally? Women would run for office in higher numbers. Health care treatments would be more accessible. Cities and systems would be designed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. We know what our communities could be. But how do we pursue the paths to achieve it? POLITICO Focus sat down with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to create a blueprint for movements and transformation — and a roadmap to a reimagined future. Read on to learn how women are remaking communities into places that are sustainable, healthy and inclusive.   Quote of the Week During a hearing on the climate crisis and fossil fuels, a congressman raised his voice and called Raya Salter, a testifying expert, "young lady" and "boo." Ocasio-Cortez apologized on behalf of the committee.  Read more here. Transitions Priscilla Almodovar was named the new CEO of Fannie Mae. Since 2019, Priscilla has been president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners. … Tara Copp is joining the AP as a reporter covering military affairs. She currently is senior Pentagon correspondent at DefenseOne. … Mini Racker will be campaigns staff writer at Time. She most recently has been a staff writer at National Journal. (h/t Playbook) … Stephanie Sykes is now senior adviser for NTIA at the Commerce Department. She most recently was director of intergovernmental affairs for infrastructure implementation at the White House. … Emily Loeb is returning to Jenner & Block to chair the congressional investigations practice and as a co-chair of the government controversies and public policy litigation practice. She previously was part of the "Day One" leadership team and is former associate deputy AG. (h/t Playbook).   The Women Rule series brings together rising stars, accomplished professionals, and women at the pinnacle of their careers to inform, empower and connect women across diverse sectors and career levels. Attendance to our quarterly in-person POLITICO Women Rule meetings, is by invitation-only. Join our interest list and learn more here .       Follow us on Twitter Katelyn Fossett @KatelynFossett   Follow us

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