Former President Bill Clinton has taken aim at Donald Trump’s leadership style, arguing that his confrontational behavior is backfiring and eroding public support. Speaking on CBS News’ Sunday Morning, Clinton offered a blunt assessment of Trump’s approach to power, suggesting that the former president is now paying a political price for his combative tactics.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before in my lifetime,” Clinton said. “Somebody who says, ‘Whatever I want should be the law of the land. It’s my way or the highway.’ And most Americans don’t agree with that.” Clinton added that Trump’s aggressive style has likely damaged his popularity. “I like to think that he’s paid a price for this, you know, name-calling and throwing his weight around. I think it’s made him less popular.”
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Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the judiciary, branding judges as “radical leftists” when their rulings obstruct his policy goals. His ongoing battle with the legal system has raised concerns about the politicization of the courts. A recent poll supports Clinton’s view, showing that around six in ten Americans believe Trump has “gone too far” in using his presidential power to enforce his sweeping agenda.
Clinton argued that the most effective way to counter Trump’s influence is through democratic engagement, especially in upcoming elections. “Look, only elections are going to change this,” he said. “Someone needs to stand up and say, ‘Damn it, what we have in common matters more. We cannot throw the legacy of this country away. We cannot destroy other people’s trust in us.’”
Despite Trump’s efforts to challenge the courts, Clinton said the judiciary remains one of the strongest safeguards against executive overreach. “He is looking for ways to basically defy all these court orders,” Clinton stated. “But I think he’ll have a hard time doing that. And if he does, I think it will hurt him in America.”
He further criticized Trump’s attempts to block law firms from representing clients who oppose him politically.
“That ain’t America,” he said. “We’ve never done that. The whole purpose of having a legal system is to have both sides be heard.” Clinton also came to the defense of President Joe Biden amid fresh scrutiny about his mental fitness following the release of Original Sin, a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson.
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“The book didn’t register with me because I never saw him that way,” Clinton said. “He’s not president anymore, and I think he did a good job.” Biden, in a show of defiance, responded to the book’s claims by saying, “You can see that I’m mentally incompetent, and I can’t walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” in apparent reference to Tapper and Thompson.