‘They Are Very Upset!’ Maggie Haberman Says Trump World Knows Terrifying Reports on Trump’s Plans Are Bad — And True

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said Trumpworld is “very upset” about reporting on former President Donald Trump’s plans for a second term because they know it’s damaging in a general election — and it’s true.

Trump is under fire for a passage in his Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire that many see as echoing the likes of Adolf Hitler.

But on Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Haberman and anchor Kaitlan Collins noted that “this is not just theoretical” — that there’s copious reporting on Trump’s odious plans for a second term.

Haberman called out the Trump campaign for distancing itself from plans — that came from sources the Trump campaign referred her to:

COLLINS: And I think that, this is not just theoretical. You’ve done a lot of the reporting on about what a second Trump term would look like. And the latest one was on what his immigration plans would be. Obviously, that was one of his biggest issues that he rode into Office on, in 2016. What would that look like, if he were reelected, based on what you’ve heard?

HABERMAN: Yes. So, a couple of things.

He, as you noted, has been pretty direct about that. He said in his speech that he wanted to conduct the largest deportation — mass deportation operation, in the country that the country has seen, and that he’s using an Eisenhower era model, with a racist name “Operation Wetback,” as what he wanted to, had in mind.

COLLINS: Which was actually the name of an immigration program under Eisenhower.

HABERMAN: Yes, that was the name of the immigration program, under Eisenhower. That is what he wants to emulate here, or something with that in mind.

And when we approached? Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan, and I approached the Trump campaign, about Trump’s immigration plan? They referred us to Stephen Miller, who is not formally advising the Campaign, but as you know, as well as I do, is quite close to Trump, was the architect of his immigration policy, in the White House, and is now working on finding lawyers, for a future Republican administration.

And so, they laid out, and various people we spoke to, laid out a very detailed plan that would involve camps, on massive open land, to enable this expedited removal and mass deportation.

They talk about invoking all kinds of different laws that would enable them, to get around existing systems. They talk about reestablishing Title 42, which was used, during COVID, as a protocol, and which was initially kept in place, by President Biden, and this time for some kind of general illness. And so, it’s very specific.

And this is something that, those of us, who have seen Stephen Miller around, a long time, this is something Stephen Miller is pretty passionate about. Donald Trump kicked off his campaign, with demagoguery, and demagoguing immigrants, and talking about Mexicans as rapists. So, none of this is hugely surprising.

COLLINS: OK. But, so I was reading this story yesterday, in The New York Times. Stephen Miller is on the record with you.

HABERMAN: Yes.

COLLINS: You noted in the story that the Trump campaign referred you to Stephen Miller.

HABERMAN: Correct.

COLLINS: So, how do we explain this statement, tonight, that we’re getting from the two people, who are running Trump’s campaign —

HABERMAN: Right.

COLLINS: — saying that all of these stories, about what a second term would look like, they say, “are purely speculative and theoretical,” and that “any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestions.”

HABERMAN: So, we get to that by the basic fact that they are very upset, by our stories, by others, and a number of outlets.

And we’ve been working on these stories, since June, about what Trump 2025 would look like, that invoke these groups, but not only these groups. And that they have sort of lost, in their minds, control of it, and they are angry at seeing groups get credit, for things, and thesis that they’re working on and so forth. But, to your point, a lot of this is not just Trump’s own mouth, but people who the Trump campaign is referring reporters to. So, this is what —

COLLINS: So, why are they putting out this statement, tonight?

HABERMAN: Well, I assume because I think they think that what Trump is actually saying is problematic for him, in a general election, which seems more like a them-problem than the things-we’re-writing-about problem.

COLLINS: Can I just — I want to read one line that stood out to me, from your piece, on immigration.

You said that part of what their plan for is for “U.S. consular officials abroad will be directed to expand ideological screening of visa applicants to block people” that “the Trump administration considers to have undesirable attitudes?”

HABERMAN: I mean, look, they are planning for, at least as they describe it, whether this would be doable or not, and how much — we note all of this is going to get challenged, legally, particularly birthright citizenship, and attempts to end it.

But yes, they are going to try to impose a broader ideological screen, to try to weed people out. Whether they will be able to successfully do that or not, I don’t know. But they are saying that. And this is being discussed, at a time, when there are obviously mass protests, about global events, so.

COLLINS: And, I mean, the staffing of a Trump term? I think, what’s important for people to remember, when you talked about how there was so many more things that he tried to do that he didn’t do? That’s because there were people like General Kelly, like Mark Esper, others, who kind of basically stood in the way, maybe not enough for some people, but they did block some of the things that he wanted to do.

HABERMAN: Well, and at the time, and you know this as well as anybody, Trump is very, very responsive, and reactive, to media coverage.

So for instance, when they were doing the family separation policy, which they will not say, what’s going to happen with that, Trump noted with you, at the Town Hall that that’s, you know, he would not rule that out. But he was very reactive to the negative coverage of it. And that was used to push him away from it, in 2018. And that worked.

I don’t know that he will be as responsive, to headlines, as he once was, just because of everything else, engulfing him.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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