NYT Journalist Maggie Haberman Weighs In on Trump’s White House, Democratic Strategy at Harvard Talk

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran K. Mamdani is the Democratic Party’s most effective messenger against Trump, Pulitzer Prize-winning White House correspondent Maggie L. Haberman told a crowd at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Thursday night.

Haberman, who has long covered President Donald Trump for the New York Times, forecasted a dreary outlook for Democrats in her Thursday talk — saying the party is leaderless and has struggled to coordinate a response to the Trump administration.

“Mamdani, who is on track — and anything can happen, but right now he’s on track — to become the next mayor of New York City has a pretty upbeat message,” she said. “In a democracy, people get elected by voters. And Mamdani is speaking to voters.”

Haberman has spent 10 years at the Times, where she has developed a reputation as the “Trump whisperer” for her unrivaled access to the President during his first term — work that won her a Pulitzer Prize in 2018.

But Haberman acknowledged on Thursday that it has been “much harder” to report on the second Trump administration and said the White House is “significantly less leaky” this time around.

Haberman said Trump keeps a far smaller circle of decision-makers this term and is safeguarded by White House Chief of Staff Susan L. Wiles, who is known to maintain top secrecy among her associates.

Wiles has been rewarded for her loyalty, Haberman said. Asked to name the three officials who had Trump’s ear in the White House, she said Wiles was “number one and probably number two.”

“Susie Wiles is in those rankings for every single day,” Haberman added.

During her hourlong talk — moderated by IOP Director Setti D. Warren — Haberman painted what she called a “very bleak picture” of Trump’s second term, which she characterized as a constitutional power grab.

“We are seeing a president using executive power and expanding executive power in ways we have not seen before,” Haberman said.

“If people want to see change, they have to vote. They have to vote what they believe in,” she added.

Just moments after the talk ended, Trump secured another executive victory when headlines declared that former FBI Director James B. Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury — the culmination of a yearslong standoff over Comey’s handling of a 2016 FBI investigation into collusion between Russia and the first Trump campaign.

Comey is not the only political enemy that Trump has weaponized the Department of Justice against. In a social media post last week, Trump also called for investigations into several critics, including New York Attorney General Letitia A. James and Senator Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.).

“This is different from what we have seen before. This is, ‘I want to prosecute a person, go get me a crime,’” Haberman said. “This is just a massive escalation.”

Though Haberman devoted much of the talk to the avenues by which Trump has eroded limits on presidential power, she hedged when asked if Trump would attempt a third campaign in 2028.

“What he will say to people privately is that he’s trolling Democrats, and he knows it bothers them, and he thinks it’s funny,” she said of a potential 2028 run. “But everything starts out as a joke with him, until it’s not.”

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.

—Staff writer Tanya J. Vidhun can be reached at tanya.vidhun@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @tanyavidhun.