David Frum: Trump is a 'Leading Voice in Favor of Violence' in U.S. Politics | Amanpour and Company

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the party is reckoning with a failed assassination attempt against former president Trump. A bitterly divided nation looks ahead with some trepidation at the lead-up to the November election. On day three of the convention, one thing is crystal clear – Trump is king of the GOP. Even former rivals for the nomination who attacked him in the primaries, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, have now pledged their allegiance. David Frum argues that while everyone is relieved Trump’s life was saved, the former president's conduct leading up to that day should not be forgotten. He joins Christiane from Wellington, Ontario to discuss the risk of erasing important context about the presidential race.

Originally aired on July 17, 2024

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Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Candace King Weir, the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Antisemitism, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Mark J. Blechner, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation, Seton J. Melvin, the Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Charles Rosenblum, Koo and Patricia Yuen, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, and Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers.

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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[johntucker]

I have often been critical of David Frum, but he was spot on in his comments here. Regarding JD Vance, let me translate: Vance is very intelligent, which means he knows better. Vance is extremely ambitious. Vance has highly malleable morals, which means he either does not have a firm belief system or he is willing to fully compromise his beliefs to satisfy his political ambition. Ergo: Vance is a political hack who is very dangerous.

[alfredoordaz]

David Frum is simply, absolutely correct, absolutely right.
Thank you.

[RhondaBritten-dhun]

And why isn’t the media helping america remember?

[BrianA]

Being a man of even "extraordinary" intellectual flexibilty can be a positive. Being a man of "extraordinary" moral flexibilty seems unthinkable.

[marnieyates]

Narcissists do not change. They can be very charming when they want something from you. DJT will never change

[jem]

David Frum is perhaps the most rational voice in politics

[oneshoewoo]

Don't put on blinders about who Trump is.
When a person shows who they are, Believe Them

A leopard can't change his spots

[PaulineSloan]

David Frum is the BEST journalist there is period.❤️🇨🇦

[davidwilfong]

What's amazing is the stock market is up the job market is up and the economy is good why change the president to someone who couldn't even handle covid

[markhammer]

One of the maxims in the field of gerontology - psychological development in later life - is that "people become more like themselves" with age. What does this mean? As children, we have negligible choice of the social and interpersonal contexts that shape us. We have no control over our parents, our family size, our income level, where we live, what school we get sent to, who is available to be friends with, etc. As adults, we begin to *make* choices about our referred contexts. We seek out career paths, hobbies, social networks, neighbourhoods, etc. that complement the personality traits we have and value. In effect, we entrench those personality traits we feel most comfortable with by selecting all those contexts. There may well be some biological aspects to some of our traits (e.g., impulsiveness, introversion, etc.), but we tend to work *with* them, rather than strive to suppress them.

Donald Trump has spent well over half his life being "a boss", who is able to make demands that no one questions. He has been able to adopt outrageous views, and make contemptible statements, that he feels comfortable making. As president, he rarely, if ever, read briefing notes, and felt comfortable parroting flimsy notions offered by dubious sources. He has a robust history of being impulsive. His courtroom sleepiness was a result of his habit of staying up late, whipping off posts of outrage.

Can someone's personality change with age, and more specifically, following a single harrowing event. Normally it doesn't diverge very much at all. And any pivotal events would really need to be both powerful, transformative in terms of one's life and social context (e.g., a car crash that both crippled oneself and resulted in loss of spouse), and offer extended opportunity to ruminate. None of this pertained to Trump. He gets to pay lip service to things, but remains busy and forgets quickly, in the process of figuring out how to get others to forget quickly. The diagnosis of narcissism is quite obvious and applicable, and those whose station in life allows them to easily apply a self-serving interpretation of things, do not soon (or even ever) abandon it.

[tracevicente]

We love David Frum ❤️🇨🇦 thank you Christiane

[elizabethmitchell]

Very frightening. All this MAGA happening is beyond alarming.

[posthocprior]

This was a good interview. Is there more or was this the full interview?

[weston.weston]

Excellent, firm commentary from David Frum?

[thestraightroad]

Watching this after seeing his performance at the NABJ Conference, I observe only an intensified aggression. If you can call that “changed”.

[ninemoonplanet]

I don't always agree with David, but I certainly do now. He's been in at least one administration centre, has known many people, in politics and outside. He worked with George W. Bush.

[nsnopper]

For a moment there, I had a flashback to over 30 years ago, when David Frum’s mother, Barbara, hosted The Journal on the CBC in Canada. She too sat in front of a giant monitor, camera positioned behind her so you saw the back of her head and her guest on the monitor.

[ronwilson]

Trump has shown you who he is. Believe him. Vote blue

[doironrealtyservices]

"violence did not touch him"?

[IgorMychalczyszyn-xfkm]

Frum is correct, people forget about his past follies. He has brought all troubles on his own.