I asked him what he’d thought of the news lately.
“Did we go to war with North Korea yet?” he asked with a laugh. “It kind of makes me nervous. I don’t know what to think of it.”
McNaughton was less troubled by the president’s controversial decision to fire FBI director James Comey. “I think the guy was throwing his weight around, and the Trump camp was like, ‘You know what? This guy’s just a pain in the butt,’” he theorized. “But if you look at the vindictiveness—everyone saying he did a bad job? That tells me Comey had probably said or done something that irritated the crap out of Trump and his group.”
Overall, he gave the president high marks, but there were some caveats. “He’s kind of backpedaled on things that he said during election process, which is disconcerting,” the artist explained. “He’s become a little bit more soft on the wall, and he’s become soft with Iran and closing that deal down. And putting Steve Bannon out, who was more of a nationalist, and leaning more on his kids, who seem more centrist in their views, I don’t know. … One of the reasons a lot of people voted for Trump is he seemed to be outside of the establishment. But he’s done some things that make me wonder if that’s the case.” Hiring five senior staffers from Goldman Sachs, for instance. “I do feel uncomfortable about that, because they’re part of the swamp,” he said. “I don’t like them. And a lot of them were tied in with Hillary.”
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