What Donald Trump said about libel

Ann Althouse writes what she believes may be her longest blog post ever. It is about Donald Trump and an interview he did with Frederick Ryan, publisher of the Washington Post, about Trump's desire to change libel laws so media types would have to be more fair. Ann observes that Trump is

not a straight talker. His seeming bluntness may make it harder to see how frustratingly evasive he is. Imagine having a President like this. I know, they all evade, they all try to control the conversation. But he's got a strange new way of befuddling us. Our defenses are weak.

...And he falls back into repetitious whining. He doesn't like being criticized. He doesn't like when they make him look bad and don't show all the good things he's done.

...Yeah, that's New York Times v. Sullivan, blocking you from suing because you're a public figure — indeed, you're the most public figure on the face of the earth — unless you can show that the publisher knew it was false or showed a reckless disregard for whether it was false. What is it about that law do you want to "loosen up" and get "a little bit away from"?

Trump won't say, he can't say, perhaps because he realizes he actually shouldn't have said he wanted to change the law, but he never goes back once he's said something. Or maybe it's because he's a man who has long had lots of lawyers jumping to his service, and the way that's always worked is: He figures out where he wants to go, and then the lawyers get on the job and figure out how to get there.

Why would you ask him how to get anywhere? He's the source of the desire to get there.

Read more here.