Donald Trump is the 'poster child of sleep deprivation': Arianna Huffington | CNBC International

Arianna Huffington discusses Donald Trump's governance and the fake news phenomenon, arguing that it has already caused the "most tragic foreign policy mistake of the western world in our lifetime."
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CNBC_international

I just want to ask you now,

because you talked about,

obviously, the Huffington Post

and, even though you're not

there any more,

I'm sure that you're a very

keen observer of what's

happening in the news in terms

of social media

and fake news.

So what are the challenges now

with fake news?

How do media organizations

overcome that?

Well, we have the challenge

that people now trust

their peers more than they

trust established media

institutions and that

more and more people,

over half the people,

get their news from social

media.

But also it's very important to

remember that fake news is not

a new phenomenon.

Let me take you back to

the year before the invasion

of Iraq.

The fake news

then was on the front page

of The New York Times,

in stories by Judith Miller,

about their weapons of mass

destruction programs in Iraq.

All of them entirely fake.

And then they were amplified

on the morning Sunday shows

and by administration

officials.

But at the time they were

reporting

on what they were being told by

the administration.

But that's fake news because

the reporting- becoming a

mouthpiece for the

administration is promoting

fake news. And look at what it

led to. It led to the

most tragic foreign policy

mistake of the Western world in

our lifetime,

because a lot of the

consequences that follow that

we reading about every day in

the papers now including ISIS,

were the result of that

incredible destabilization

of the region because of

the invasion of Iraq

based on entirely fake

news, we should never forget

that.

So we've talked about that

relationship with fake news and

the administration that that

you're saying,

Arianna, bu what about the

administration now in the U.S.

with President Trump?

Because there's the

fake news, or is there, the

dossier that's being talked

about, the relationship that

he's having now with media

outlets. It's unprecedented.

He's accusing networks

and it's never happened before.

What do you make of it?

Well two things.

First of all Donald Trump

should be separated from his

phone at night.

Get a full night's sleep and

stop tweeting in the middle of

the night.

Yeah, because he's tweeting at

3 a.m.

Exactly. He's the poster child

of sleep deprivation.

He's exhausted.

How do you think it's affecting

him?

It's definitely- you can see

it's affecting him!

In what way?

It's affecting him in the sense

that,

even after he won,

he was basically taking

the bait constantly.

You would have thought after

your win you can just relax,

you're on top of the world,

you're going to be President of

the United States in a few

days.

And it's really

the opposite of my

greatest hero,

Marcus Aurelius who was Emperor

of Rome and a stoic

philosopher.

And really these are like two

examples,

polar opposites,

of leadership.

One is kind of unflappable

in the presence of any dangers,

accusations and leading

from a very centered,

responsible place and

the other, unfortunately,

is being affected by every

negative tweet and

portrayal on Saturday Night

Live that he doesn't like

and every thing

kind of makes him upset.

And I promise you, if he got

eight hours sleep

and did not

to eat in the middle of the

night, the next

four years it would be

infinitely better for the

world. So I highly recommend

that his advisers take the

phone away.

It was interesting because I

did see some

tweets that he directed

at you personally,

back in 2012,

and they were very harsh.

They- they were real personal

attacks on you.

But that's his style.

You know, that doesn't mean

anything. You know, he always

attacks people.

I think- right now I think

he has an opportunity to tap

into the best Donald Trump

there is.

Because I think we all have the

better angels of our nature and

the worst part of ourselves,

and we all have an interest for

him to tap into that part

because he is now the

president.

And I think it's incredibly

important for people,

good people,

to accept to be in his

administration. I'm a believer

in that because the more he

is surrounded by people who can

influence him in the right

direction,

the better off the world will

be. He- and

I also think on behalf of the

media,

it's terribly important that

they do not succumb

to stories and publish stories

as BuzzFeed did publish the

dossier before they verify

them. Because

otherwise the media are going

to lose their credibility when

they are real stories they

want to address and

they want to criticize the

administration on.

If you'd been at the Huffington

Post and the dossier had come

out would you have published?

Absolutely not.

Because nobody has been able to

verify it.

That's why CNN did not publish

it. That's why the New York

Times did not publish it.

Otherwise we fall into

the trap that happened during

the Obama years when the

right-wing press would

publish anything against Obama.

You know, that's how the

birther controversy started.

'He was not born in the United

States' - completely,

completely fake news

that was published by

his opponents because

they wanted to believe the

worst about him.

Arianna, do you think,

going back to the theme of

responsible leadership,

President Trump will be a

responsible leader?

We do not know.

We have a lot of reason to

worry,

and I believe now

he needs to be judged by

everything he does and not by

what he said during the

campaign.

And just finally,

what's next for you,

besides a good night sleep

tonight.

Well a great day ahead in Davos

that I'm really looking forward

to.

And I'm really looking

forward to what's next for

Thrive Global.

We are expanding around the

world with just closed joint

ventures in Italy, in India

with the Times of India,

in South Africa,

in Eastern Europe,

in Russia,

in Turkey.

The stress of-

the stress and burnout

pandemic is everywhere.

It's truly global and it's

having a huge impact on

both individual lives,

corporations and countries.

I mean, 75 percent

of our healthcare costs are

because of stress related,

preventable diseases.

So we need to address this head

on, it's a real public health

crisis.

And I'm definitely committed to

devoting the rest of my life to

it.

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