The Economist’s Robert Powell on Being Wrong About Trump: The ‘Gift That Keeps on Giving’

The author had predicted a Trump presidency would lead to a wave of terror attacks

RUSH EXCERPT:

KILMEADE: "You got the idea that is what a protest looks like. Robert Powell with “The economist” that rated Donald Trump as one of the ten greatest risks alongside jihadi terrorism in your column. But you were just a kid then, Robert. You didn’t know he would get the nomination and you didn’t know he would win. He won. We are almost at year two now. Not in the midst of a series of terror attacks and we didn’t reinvig rate the Cold War — reinvigorate the cold War. Were you wrong?
POWELL: "The gift that keeps giving. It was whether he was bad for global economy."
KILMEADE: "But you did write about terrorism?"
POWELL: "Yeah. He had a whole host of issues with the inflaming the Muslim opinion. A lot of that is coming with the protest in the U.K. Backlash globally with the immigration policies and the like here."
KILMEADE: "A couple of things. You do point out that President Bush in 2003 had the same size protest when he went to visit Tony Blair."
POWELL: "Exactly. This isn’t new. The thing about being the U.S. It’s like being Tom Cruise. Everybody knows you and everybody has an opinion about you. A few more people coming out than you would the Portuguese prime minister mopped — popped by. He has taken measures and retweeted the neo tweet. And they are quite green so there is a body of opinion against him but it’s not highly unusual."
KILMEADE: "If you look at his relationship with Theresa may which didn’t start out great they seemed to have bonded. They almost had their back at the presser. And in Brussels. Am I overstating that?"
POWELL: "He undermine the Brexit plan but at the end of the day they are holding hands. So I don’t know what happened in between."
KILMEADE: "Theresa May is a gray area. Is she Brexit or kind of in the European union? After meeting with president Trump she goes I’m leaving in March. I want a bilateral. I’m not in European union and I want a biliteral with the United States of America. Case closed. She didn’t say it last week."
POWELL: "Given her some vinegar, hasn’t he? She is trying to take the middle ground. That is a problem because no one is happy with that in the middle. Everybody wants extreme. She is in a spot of bother."

Video files
Full
Compact
Audio files
Full
Compact