Peggy Noonan on Trump’s ‘Success’ Comment: Trump Lacks Empathy; He Speaks Defensively ‘By Habit’

EXCERPT:

NOONAN: "I think it is clear to everyone that Puerto Rico experienced a disaster. To give the president the benefit of the doubt, he may have been trying to say so many people went there for FEMA, and -- and other agencies, and tried very hard to do a good job."
MITCHELL: "The military was there."
NOONAN: "Exactly, and he is trying to -- to hold high their work and their reputation as a matter of loyalty. But because he is Donald Trump, a sort of characterological lack of empathy tends to come in, in other words he didn’t talk about these poor people that had a dreadful time, and we are still working on it. And there is also the defensiveness that he shows, it's a funny thing, but he speaks defensively about things by habit. As if he is always experiences himself to be being attacked."