WSJ: If you get the vote—if you get the vote today to go ahead, what will be the next hurdle that you—
Donald Trump: Well, then you have to go and decide on what plan you want, which way you’re going to go. You want to decide on is it repeal or repeal and replace. If it’s repeal and replace, which one do you want to go? Which form of existing conditions? I mean, there’s many things. But once you’re in there, then you can really negotiate. This is actually the heart, though. Once you’re there, you can, you know, Gerard—oh, say hello.
Ivanka Trump: Hi, Gerard. How are you?
Gerard Baker: Oh, hey. How nice to see you. How are you doing?
Ivanka Trump : I heard you were here. I wanted to come by and say hi. How is your Arabella?
Gerard Baker: Oh, very—. She just got back from Costa Rica. She was there for two weeks. And how’s—and how’s yours?
Ivanka Trump: Oh, very good. (Inaudible.)
Gerard Baker: It was nice to see you out in Southampton a couple weeks ago.
Donald Trump: So you do, you have a—is it the same spelling?
Gerard Baker: I have an—exactly the same spelling, Arabella. Yeah.
Donald Trump: How did that happen? I think you named your daughter after—
Ivanka Trump: It’s an English name, but it’s not particularly common, so.
Gerard Baker: It’s not very common, yeah, no. Actually, we were there first.
Ivanka Trump: You’re the first.
Gerard Baker: Mine is—mine is 15. How old is yours?
Ivanka Trump: Oh, OK.
Donald Trump: So he’s—I think you copied.
Ivanka Trump: So I copied that. (Laughter.)
Gerard Baker: Yeah, yeah, no, it’s actually—
Ivanka Trump: And I liked your editorial today, very nice. (Laughs.)
Gerard Baker: Oh, good, good. Well, you see, you know, my colleagues write those, so they’ll be—they’ll be—
Donald Trump: You did a good job.
Ivanka Trump: Yeah, you really did.
Gerard Baker: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Donald Trump: You did a good job. He’s a good—he’s a good boy.
Ivanka Trump: They wrote a very nice editorial, so very good.
Gerard Baker: Thank you.
WSJ: Thank you.
Donald Trump: Thanks, honey. Stay around if you want.
Ivanka Trump: Yeah, yeah.
Donald Trump: So we’ll have the vote today at probably 3:00 or so.
I excerpt this exchange not because Arabella is anything but a lovely name, or because it casts anyone involved in a negative light, but because it is a perfect illustration of how strange it is that the Trumps are perceived by so many as regular Americans who are profoundly alienated from coastal media elites.
In truth, Donald Trump is the sort of man who is on good terms with the editor of a Manhattan newspaper of America’s business elites, in part because his daughter and son-in-law socialize in settings like a party in the Hamptons hosted by a Washington Post heiress and attended by both Steven Spielberg and Kellyanne Conway.