Donald Trump is ‘in a bad place,’ he has the sense that ‘things are unraveling’
March 1, 2018You know what I was thinking about yesterday, shortly before Hope Hicks announced her resignation? I was thinking about Donald Trump calling countries like Haiti “sh-tholes” and I couldn’t remember how long it had been since that story came out. Time doesn’t matter anymore, and time folds in on itself, expands and balloons and becomes unrecognizable. But surely, it has been worse before. It was worse last year, many times, when it felt like 20 massive scandals or controversies would break all at once on a Friday afternoon. The fact that Hope Hicks is packing up her sh-tty highlights and her Caboodle Makeup Organizer is not the worst thing to happen to the Bigly Administration in even the past week. And yet… it feels different. Axios says that the administration is in chaos like never before, and that Trump is “in a bad place.” Spoiler: every day in Trump’s America is the Bad Place.
After a crazy 24 hours, sources close to President Trump say he is in a bad place — mad as hell about the internal chaos and the sense that things are unraveling. The big picture: Hope Hicks leaving is obviously a huge blow to him. Every time he reads about Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his head explodes. The staff is just trying to ride out the storm.
Everywhere you look inside this White House, top officials are fighting, fomenting, feuding or fleeing, insiders say in conversations with us. Hope Hicks — without question, the aide (family aside) with whom Trump is closest — resigned one day after she admitted in closed-door Hill testimony that she told white lies for the president.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly cracked down on Jared Kushner, stripping his top security clearance, and watching anonymous aides leak about and trash him, while offering no public defense of the president’s son-in-law. Jared, Ivanka and Don Jr. let it be known to friends they are furious with Kelly and his allies. Jared loses his internal P.R. guru, Josh Raffel, when he needs him most.
Economic adviser Gary Cohn is at war with trade policy adviser Peter Navarro. Trump is at war with Attorney General Sessions. N.Y. Times lead story: “Trump Tears Into Sessions Over Russia Investigation.” … WashPost: “Behind the scenes, Trump has derisively referred to Sessions as ‘Mr. Magoo,’ a cartoon character who is elderly, myopic and bumbling.”
Intelligence chiefs use every chance possible to contradict the commander-in-chief on Russia.
Trump reportedly “berated” Hope Hicks for her “white lies” admission during her testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. He reportedly called her stupid too, and this all came to a head this week following weeks – if not months – of people gunning for her within the White House. New York Magazine has a good rundown of what is often deemed the “palace intrigue” of the Trump administration. Palace intrigue in that everyone in this administration seems stupid, petty, arrogant, nasty, and like they would throw their mothers off a cliff to get in good with a treasonous, senile old racist.
Photos courtesy of Getty.