REPORT: Trump Is Totally Losing It, for Real This Time
Happy hump day! Are you having a bad week, maybe counting down the days to that glorious weekend? Find solace in the fact that President Donald Trump is almost certainly have a worse week that you, between feuding with a senior Republican senator who publicly called him a child in a day care, a spat with his Secretary of State over who’s smarter, and now, another damaging report from inside the White House that Trump is hanging by a thread.
In Vanity Fair on Wednesday, Gabriel Sherman reported the president is “unraveling,” “unstable,” and hates “everyone” in his White House, citing conversations with a half dozen prominent Republicans, none of whom are named, in recent days.
“I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!” Trump reportedly vented to Keith Schiller, his longtime head of security. Two sources said Schiller quit his administration post last month after Chief of Staff John Kelly demanded he ask permission before speaking to Trump and that written records be kept of their talks.
One person close to Trump said the recent loss of incumbent Alabama Senator Luther Strange, who fell to beloved homophobe Roy Moore even after Trump endorsed and campaigned for Strange, was a “huge blow to his psyche.”
“He saw the cult of personality was broken,” the person told Vanity Fair. This tracks with what we know about Trump: that he’s addicted to conveying the outward appearance of success at all times and finds anyone he brands a “loser” repellent beyond measure.
And with each passing day, we’re treated to another anonymously sourced report about how few friends Trump has left in the White House. It’s gotten bad enough that he’s apparently even avoiding TV appearances, which were once his bread and butter.
“He’s lost a step. They don’t want him doing adversarial TV interviews,” an adviser told the magazine, also saying that White House aides were relieved when the president canceled a scheduled appearance on the season premiere of 60 Minutes. (The White House says it’s being rescheduled.)
Well, at least he’s got Steve Bannon, the former Breitbart chief-turned-campaign chairman-turned-White House adviser-turned Breitbart propagandist again, right? Wrong.
According to another source, Bannon is telling people he thinks Trump’s only got a 30% chance of making it through the full four-year term, which doesn’t sound wrong.
With friends like these!