Chelsea Clinton on Donald Trump

Chelsea Clinton was a guest on Stephen Colbert's late night show a few nights ago.  She's very articulate and has learned well from her parents how to be cautious when speaking to the public about opposition leaders.

But Colbert pushed her a little bit -- asking if she and Ivanka Trump have kept up their friendship.    Chelsea said they had not spoken in quite a while, and she mentioned that Ivanka is now going along with some administration policies that she, Chelsea, disagrees with.

Then, with a little more probing from Colbert, she said this about the president and how the White House is functioning:

"The President thrives on anxiety and insults. . . .  Unfortunately, this administration is a collision of cruelty and incompetence."

And, with implied reference to his recent announcement on tariffs and the departure of his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, as well as how foreign policy issues in general are being decided, Chelsea said:

"It's very sad that we . . . have a president who has such callous disregard for thoughtful, coherent, expert advice on foreign policy."

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And on everything else too, I would add.   If he replaces Gary Cohn with Peter Navarro, who is apparently the economist who had Trump's ear on tariffs, then it will be disaster.   An expert on Chris Hayes' show said he had been unable, despite trying over some time, to find in all of academia one single other economist who agreed with Navarro on economic policy.

Ralph