STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This week, President Trump made presidential history in that he literally wrote the histories of presidents. He had partisan descriptions of his predecessors posted on plaques at the White House. This same week, the president's appointees claim to have added his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump also dismayed his own allies by suggesting the filmmaker Rob Reiner was killed for not liking Trump. And then there was the address to the nation in which many people felt that Trump was shouting at them. All this is on-brand for the president, but is he getting less restrained over time? Jonathan Karl is our guide on this. He is chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, has covered Trump for three decades and has written several books about him, including his latest, "Retribution." Jon Karl, welcome back.
JONATHAN KARL: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Does the Donald Trump that we've seen in recent days look familiar to you?
KARL: He certainly looks familiar. I mean, this is Trump. I mean, everything is about Trump. The fact that he is rewriting history and putting himself at the middle of it. The fact that he wants to put his name on the Kennedy Center, hardly surprising. The fact that he wants to address the world with a primetime address that really doesn't have anything to say that would warrant a traditional primetime presidential address, not really surprising. But, Steve, when you add it all up, the big difference from what we have seen in the past is he is truly untethered. There is nobody in the White House that is trying to tell him, look, sir, you may not have the authority to do this. It might look bad. Nobody is having that conversation with him.
INSKEEP: I would like to know if this is purely a matter of staffing.
KARL: No. It'd be a mistake to think this is just about staffing. That would be a mistake. That is a factor. Look, I wrote "Retribution" about his journey back to the White House. He faced a campaign where he was either going to face the very real possibility of going to prison or becoming the most powerful president in modern American history. Powerful because of his total control over his party and also, of course, a Supreme Court decision that basically said he's not going to be prosecuted. So he's dealing with a situation where he feels empowered to do whatever the hell he wants.
I mean, the Kennedy Center was named by an act of Congress. You can't have your allies on the board wave a magic wand and have a vote and say, we're calling it the Trump Kennedy Center. That's a violation of a law. Will it be stopped? I mean, I would think eventually it would be, but he doesn't feel any such constraint.
INSKEEP: People in the White House were upset when The New York Times took note of the president's age recently, but is that at all a factor in someone who is less and less in control of what he says?
KARL: You know, our friend Jonathan Martin of Politico wrote a piece saying that he is basically like the kid in the movie "Big" - the Tom Hanks character in the movie "Big." He's having a great time. He can do whatever he wants. Sometimes you go to the White House and you hear loud music coming from the direction of the Rose Garden. That's because the Rose Garden, which he has largely paved over, he goes out there and he plays DJ. Is he slipping? Is his age a factor here?
Look, you clearly see him at times where he seems very tired. You see him at times where he's ridiculously energetic. It goes up and down. But I don't know that you can look at his behavior and say that the primary factor here is age. But he is 79 years old.
INSKEEP: Do you think that he is concerned at all about the political effects of what he does, people disapproving?
KARL: He does obsess over polls and over media coverage, like he always has. He sees what you see, what we all see, which is he is at some of the lowest approval ratings that he has ever had, and particularly on the areas that have been his strengths - the handling of the economy. So he knows that. He is concerned about it, but will it dissuade him and cause him to act in a different way? I think that's what prompted the speech to the nation, but, you know, he's going to say what he wants to say.
INSKEEP: What do you think about when you see that the Trump merch store is selling Trump 2028 hats, and he encourages people to talk about a third term?
KARL: I think he loves that. I think you'll hear more of it. I do not think it his intention to serve a third term. I think his intention is to leave this all, but I don't think you can count on it. One of the themes I close on in "Retribution" is that he is making changes that will far out survive him, including the changes right there to the White House. I think that, you know, his efforts to change the world and get retribution on those who stopped him the first time around are really only getting started.
INSKEEP: Jonathan Karl is chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and the author of "Retribution." Thanks so much.
KARL: Thank you, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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