Politics

Joe Kernen: I care about Trump's policies that fuel stock market highs — not his 'impetuous' personality

Key Points
  • The chaotic picture of the Trump White House painted by anonymous reporting distracts from the president's accomplishments, CNBC's Joe Kernen says.
  • "What, there are mean tweets and he doesn't listen to people? If it comes home to roost in a nuclear war, I'll care," Kernen says.
  • Kernen says he does care about the remaking of the Supreme Court, business deregulation, tax reform, and "new highs in the Nasdaq and the S&P."
Joe Kernen: I care about Trump's policies that fuel stock market highs
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Joe Kernen: I care about Trump's policies that fuel stock market highs

The chaotic picture of the Trump White House painted by The New York Times' anonymous op-ed and journalist Bob Woodward's new book distracts from the accomplishments of the president, CNBC's Joe Kernen said Thursday.

"Am I worried about an impetuous president, one that changes his mind all the time? No," Kernen said on "Squawk Box." "I care about [Supreme Court Neil Gorsuch]. I care about deregulation. I care about tax reform. I care about new highs in the Nasdaq and the . I care about if Hillary [Clinton] had been elected where we'd be right now."

Kernen suggests the discussion about President Donald Trump should be around his policies and the remaking of the Supreme Court as drivers for American businesses, not his personality.

"What, there are mean tweets and he doesn't listen to people? If it comes home to roost in a nuclear war, I'll care," Kernen said.

Kernen has known Trump for years, interviewing him as a businessman and as president.

In an op-ed from whom The New York Times identified only as "a senior official in the Trump administration," the author wrote, "Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."

Those remarks echo a narrative in an upcoming new book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," by Woodward, who first gained famed for his reporting with former Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal that ended the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Kernen said if this type of subversion were indeed taking place, then the president and others who have claimed there are forces working against him would be vindicated.

In a Thursday morning tweet, Trump said "The Deep State," the left and the media are going "crazy" because they can't stand that things are going so well.

The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don't know what to do. The Economy is booming like never before, Jobs are at Historic Highs, soon TWO Supreme Court Justices & maybe Declassification to find Additional Corruption. Wow