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Samantha Power (right) speaking to TheJournal.ie's Aoife Barry in Trinity College Dublin Hayley Halpin/TheJournal.ie

'Two terms of Donald Trump will not be twice the damage': Samantha Power on her career - and life after Obama

Irish-American Samantha Power, who served as a UN ambassador, has had a long and storied career.

“WHAT I CARE above all about is ending the presidency of Donald Trump, not least because two terms of Donald Trump will not be twice the damage.” 

Irish-American woman Samantha Power, who served as a UN ambassador, has had a long and storied career.

After moving to the US from Dublin as a child with her mother, brother, and stepfather, Power fully immersed herself into American life. A sports-mad young girl, in college she began to work in sports journalism. But seeing footage of the Tiananmen Square protests made her move to news arena, and she went on to report from the Bosnian conflict.

Her work then led her to the White House – after a senator named Barack Obama read her Pulitzer Prize-winning book about genocide and foreign policy, A Problem From Hell, she ended up working as a special assistant to him from 2009 and later as Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights on the US National Security Council. 

She then moved on to serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. After Trump’s election, Power became the Anna Lindh Professor of the practice of global leadership and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the William D Zabel Professor of practice in human rights at Harvard Law School.

Now, she has written a memoir about her life so far. In The Education of an Idealist, Power traces her journey from an activist outsider to a government insider, bringing the reader onto the streets of war-torn Bosnia, and into the White House Situation Room and the UN Security Council. 

The book emphasises the work that goes into making diplomatic decisions, with Power detailing the bureaucracy within the White House. The conflict in Syria and Libya are explored in the book. But the book also shows the major things that can be achieved by someone in power, such as the fight against Ebola, and the Iran Deal.

However, many policies being implemented during Obama’s term in office are now being rolled back by current US President Donald Trump, something which Power is concerned about.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie during a lunchtime conversation hosted by her publisher Harper Collins and the Harvard Club at Trinity College earlier this week, Power discussed her take on the upcoming 2020 presidential election in the US.

When asked who she would like to see take over the role of president, Power said: “What I care above all about is ending the presidency of Donald Trump, not least because two terms of Donald Trump will not be twice the damage. 

“I don’t know what the exponent is, but probably five times, 10 times the damage, so it’s weird that four plus four is not eight.” 

Power went on to say she “just can’t even conceive of just the erosion of the rule of law and the corruption” under Trump. 

She said that it’s “so incredibly important that people rally” during the upcoming campaigns, adding that this election is “going to be all about turnout more than it’s going to be about persuasion”.

She added that getting people out to vote will be key in whether Trump continues in his role or not. “In 2016, 9% of the people who voted for Obama in 2012 voted for Trump in 2016. That’s millions of voters. And 7% of people who voted for Obama in 2012 stayed home in 2016,” she said. 

“Again, this was an election settled by 78,000 votes. If you just had comparable turnout of just the women who had voted in 2012 turned out in 2016, or the young people, we may be in some mess, but wouldn’t be in a Trump-inspired mess.”

The Education of an Idealist front cover (1)

In her memoir, Power is also quite candid about some of the more controversial moments in her political career, such as when she had to resign as Obama’s foreign policy advisor during his 2014 campaign after she called Hillary Clinton a “monster” while in an off-the-record portion of an interview with the Scotsman newspaper. 

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Power explained that she had written to Clinton to apologise, but she had not been able to meet her in person for some time. 

However, a meeting with Clinton finally came about in an unusual way.

“The day after my wedding, Richard Holbrooke, the famous – late unfortunately – American diplomat mediator informed me that as a wedding present, he had arranged a summit with Hillary Clinton,” Power said, adding that Clinton was “very gracious” and accepted her apology in person. 

“And then I got to call Obama and I got to say ‘We’re good, I think, maybe you know, it’s possible for me to come back’,” she said.  

“He said ‘What do you mean we’re good?’ and I said ‘Well, Richard Holbrook, he got me this wedding present…’,” Power said. 

“He said ‘What? Your wedding present was a meeting with Hillary Clinton? Really? Don’t most people get toasters?’ And so, he thought that was a bit absurd, but anyway, then I was able to get back into the campaign.” 

Climate change

Following her discussion with TheJournal.ie, Power also took some questions from the audience, which led her to touch on issues such as climate change, bureaucracy in government, Ukraine’s military aid, and even her choice of wedding location.

Addressing the issue of climate change, Power said what’s happening with the climate protests is “inspiring beyond words, exhilarating, necessary, urgent, angry, in just the right way. In the appropriate way, given the lack of action and the lethargy at a state level, not just by the United States where we’re doing nothing, but even in a place like China that’s claiming to be at the helm of this leadership … but then is building coal plants as part of the Golden Road initiative”. 

Power said she hopes that there will be a “politicisation of the activism” surrounding the global protests. 

Ending on a positive note, she pointed out that the young people who staged the protests against gun violence in the US had voter registration booths along the routes. “So basically, they were sort of steering people also into politicisation.”

Listen to the full interview below:


thejournal_ie / SoundCloud

Samantha Power’s The Education of an Idealist has been shortlisted in the 2019 An Post Irish Book Awards’ Ireland non-fiction book of the year category. To vote for your favourite books, visit the awards website.

- With reporting from Aoife Barry

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    Mute Pl Ster
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    Nov 9th 2019, 9:30 AM

    Trump V Varadkar
    President Trump by a country mile .

    221
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    Mute James Brady
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    Nov 9th 2019, 10:05 AM

    @Pl Ster: I met a “flat earther” once. It was simultaneously fascinating and depressing. No matter how many times I pointed out the obvious inconsistencies in his position, he still doggedly clung to his beliefs. There are some people who just cannot face reality; sadly it’s a facet of the human condition.

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    Mute GMCManning
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:34 AM

    @Pl Ster: in race? Unbloody likely unless Trumpy gets to use his golf cart

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    Mute Gerry Quinn
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:33 AM

    Because the Obama-era policies regarding Libya, Syria and Iran were so successful…

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    Mute GMCManning
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:36 AM

    @Gerry Quinn: agreed but how have Trumpys been any improvement?

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    Mute GMCManning
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    Nov 9th 2019, 12:59 PM

    @Pickles: morning stalker. You do know that same logic would then apply more damningly to you following me about on here? Did imaginary me put out last nite? Hope so but remember to change your sheets and have a shower darling.

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    Mute GMCManning
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    Nov 9th 2019, 2:35 PM

    @GMCManning: ah cop on Journal. Twas me ickle pickles was insulting and it doesn’t bother me in the least. The little fellas harmless, leave off with the needless deletions

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    Mute Seamus Gallen
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    Nov 9th 2019, 9:07 AM

    She’s a touch of class.

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    Mute the cook
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    Nov 9th 2019, 9:19 AM

    @Seamus Gallen: yeah.. Real classy lady. She also thought regime change was good for Libya. Of course this regime change has resulted in slave trade opening up.

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    Mute Chin Feeyin
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    Nov 9th 2019, 10:54 AM

    @the cook: Read “A Problem from Hell”. You’ll change your opinion of her.

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    Mute darrenphughes
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    Nov 9th 2019, 5:43 PM

    @Chin Feeyin: the cook doesn’t read. That’s pretty obvious from his posts here.

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    Mute jacquoranda
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    Nov 9th 2019, 9:15 AM

    “After she called Hillary Clinton a monster…Power wrote to her to apologise”

    Wise. Probably didn’t want to “commit suicide”

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    Mute GMCManning
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:35 AM

    @jacquoranda: careful u don’t fall off the worlds edge there kid

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Nov 9th 2019, 10:52 AM

    She must be selling a book.

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    Mute Chin Feeyin
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:02 AM

    @Daniel Dunne: nothing gets past you, does it?

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    Mute Damian Moylan
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    Nov 9th 2019, 12:58 PM

    The bombing of Libya destroyed the country, it’s economy leaving it a lawless mess with tribal warfare. Catastrophic,for the people of Libya. A very shameful, misguided and incomprehensible episode. Power corrupts. Media outlets played along.

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    Mute Joseph Lyons
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:27 AM

    Trump article 1247

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    Mute Eamon McGowan
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    Nov 9th 2019, 2:16 PM

    THANK YOU Samantha, for Libya, Syria the drones and all the other good stuff.
    You make me ashamed to be Irish.

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    Mute Angela McCarthy
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    Nov 9th 2019, 1:37 PM

    Power of the media also corrupts – therein lies the problem!

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Nov 9th 2019, 11:38 PM

    The devils own

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    Mute Tom McHugh
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    Nov 10th 2019, 5:16 AM

    The only thing that struck me, was that she called her meeting with Hillary a “summit”. Oh the hubris of some folk…

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    Mute Squiddley Diddley
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    Nov 9th 2019, 10:47 AM

    That’s wierd. A lot of innocuous but idiotic comments being deleted on this story.

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    Mute Anthony Doyle
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    Nov 10th 2019, 4:48 AM

    Got of to an excellent start being born in Dublin

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