Drinking Cocktails With Ian Bremmer Part II: Leaders Who Imbibed Too Much (But Maybe Trump Could Use A Drink)

In the second part of my interview with Ian Bremmer (read Part I here) at The Flatiron Room in New York we discuss one Russian leader who drank too much and one American president who perhaps could use a good cocktail. And for more from Ian Bremmer watch his latest TED talk on why ‘The next global superpower isn’t who you think.’

Name a time when drinks affected world politics.

Yeltsin was drunk a lot. (Laughs) That’s part of the reason why his country imploded, the leader of Russia was frequently not compos mentis. There were times that Clinton covered for him when he was completely drunk, but Clinton could only cover for him so much. There were a lot of mistakes made in those early post-Soviet days — not all by the Russians — but Yeltsin being a serious alcoholic handicapped the process. It amazes me that Trump doesn’t drink.

That is strange, isn’t it?

And he doesn’t like dogs. Doesn’t like animals. (Laughs) Particularly doesn’t like dogs. Frankly, if I meet a fellow human being who tells me that they don’t drink and they don’t like dogs — I’m already deeply skeptical of that person. And he grew up with incredible privilege. So those are kind of my three warning bells. And I couldn’t stand Trump when he was a Democrat — this has nothing to do with his political party — and that was before I knew those three things about him. I kind of feel like maybe drinking would help Trump a little. This guy needs less control.

To be fair it has to do with his brother.

And that’s a perfectly legitimate reason. This is not to cast aspersions.

Might it have made him a better president?

You know, most people have not done horrible things to another person. It’s more that every day on an ongoing basis we’re not being the best kind of people that we’re capable of being. And that defines Trump to the most exponential degree. I look at penal reform, for example, which was very positive for the country. I’m very glad that Trump did that. He didn’t need to. I can find all sorts of policies that happened during the Trump administration that were positive. But this is a guy that just fundamentally doesn’t care about other human beings.

What’s the appeal then to his supporters?

When he says ‘they’re coming after you and they have to come through me.’ Trump has made the mainstream media his enemy. He’s made the doctors, the scientists, the establishment politicians his enemy — even though he is an elite himself in every way.

These are people that the average American, with good reason, believes have lied to them for decades. So I absolutely understand. If my mother were alive today she would never vote for Hillary or for Bush, she would vote for Bernie or for Trump without any question. And I completely get that. I don’t identify with it but I’m deeply sympathetic.

Your opinions carry a lot of weight. Do you have to be careful speaking your mind when you’re out to dinner or having drinks?

I’ve tried really hard to organize my life in a way that I can be as authentic about my views publicly as I humanly can. I have a hard time not expressing my honest view. I’ve never been in politics. I’ve never been a member of a political party. I have strong views that do not line up with any individual on every issue. And when the world changes — my views change. People don’t understand that whatever views you have, no matter how well-founded, if you are not constantly updating your information you will become wrong.

In the past two people arguing politics could end a heated conversation by agreeing all politicians were idiots. We had an out. Now it seems like it’s always a fight to the death. Do you have any optimism about us coming together as a country again?

In person. Not online. If I could wave a wand and ban social media I’d do it. I think advertisement-driven social media models drive this hatred and is undermining democracy. Full stop. Undermining civil society. It’s the same thing that gerrymandering has done in the House of Representatives. The country is on a bell curve on immigration. On abortion. But then you go to the House and they’re insane. Because the people of this country are not the House of Representatives, the country is the Senate. And they’re not social media.

The new headquarters for the Eurasia Group used to belong to John Jacob Astor. Any dead bodies buried there?

When I was a kid the few times my mom would ever take us out to a restaurant I’d always suggest some place that was more expensive than we could afford. And she would say “who do you think you are, an Astor?” I never knew what that meant. And now I have his headquarters.