John Dickerson: Trump Understands Power More than Any President

COLBERT: “I pushed you into out of your depth.”
DICKERSON: “Yes. Some people believe that’s the starting point. But the important part I’m trying to make on the TikTok business is he’s saying, ‘I know better, than the Supreme Court, the legislative process.’ So he has put himself above those things. Now, other presidents have done that. They have said what Joe Biden said, ‘Student debt, I’m getting rid of some of it.’ There are moves presidents have made, sort of with a sweep of my hand, but this is on day one and essentially across all branches of government he is saying, ‘I am the supreme, dominant figure.’ So if you look at his speech, look at the way in which his personal body — and he embodies, it’s not, ‘I’m going to test the limits of power.’ It is, ‘I am power.’ And Donald Trump has a better understanding of power than any president, I don’t know, FDR was pretty good too. But he understands power. The symbols of that was the tech CEOs who were there to pay him homage at his inauguration.”
COLBERT: “And drop off the checks.”
DICKERSON: “Well, they did, yeah, spend a lot of money on his inaugural events. But also, look at on the January 6 rioters, think about what a power move that is with the members of Congress. These are people whose building was attacked by the rioters, who have to go to work every day and past policemen who were there being attacked, and they are saying very little. I think Senator Murkowski has denounced it, but the rest of them, as you showed earlier, don’t want to talk about the pardons. I mean, he has — this is a dominant move on his part. He has done something quite sweeping, and his whole party is okay with it.”