At first it sounded like hyperbole, the escalation of a Twitter war. But now it’s clear that Bob Corker’sremarkable New York Times interview—in which the Republican senator described the White House as “adult day care” and warned Trump could start World War III—was an inflection point in the Trump presidency. It brought into the open what several people close to the president have recently told me in private: that Trump is “unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.”
The conversation among some of the president’s longtime confidantes, along with the character of some of the leaks emerging from the White House has shifted. There’s a new level of concern. NBC News published a report that Trump shocked his national security team when he called for a nearly tenfold increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal during a briefing this summer. One Trump adviser confirmed to me it was after this meeting disbanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron.”
In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”
According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!” (A White House official denies this.) Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about Kelly’s future increased after Politico reported that Kelly’s deputy Kirstjen Nielsen is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretary—the theory among some Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his departure.
One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said. Even Trump’s most loyal backers are sowing public doubts. This morning, The Washington Post quotedlongtime Trump friend Tom Barrack saying he has been “shocked” and “stunned” by Trump’s behavior.
While Kelly can’t control Trump’s tweets, he is doing his best to physically sequester the president—much to Trump’s frustration. One major G.O.P. donor told me access to Trump has been cut off, and his outside calls to the White House switchboard aren’t put through to the Oval Office. Earlier this week, I reported on Kelly’s plans to prevent Trump from mingling with guests at Mar-a-Lago later this month. And, according to two sources, Keith Schiller quit last month after Kelly told Schiller he needed permission to speak to the president and wanted written reports of their conversations.
The White House denies these accounts. “The President’s mood is good and his outlook on the agenda is very positive,” an official said.
He's also losing with with the generals. When Trump can't get his way, he pitches a fit like a child.
In July, Trump was livid with his national security staff for suggesting he had to certify Iran’s compliance with the international deal arranged by President Barack Obama.
“He threw a fit,” said one Post source. “He was furious. Really furious.”
With Trump ignoring the arguments put forth by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security advisor H.R. McMaster came up with a scheme to accommodate Trump’s hatred of everything Obama — without killing the deal between the United States, Iran, Britain France, Germany, Russia and China.
The workaround employed by McMaster is for United States to certify Iran’s compliance the deal, but to put allies on notice Trump wants to walk away by announcing new conditions for continued participation and then punting the issue to Congress.
“It would give a few months or years lead time to give time to get U.S. allies on board with the same restrictions — a unified front that will put lots of pressure on the Iranians” a White House aide told The Post.
Trump’s July 17th tantrum about the deal reportedly lasted all afternoon — even forcing a postponement of a planned announcement.
To be fair, it took Tricky Dick six years before things fell apart this badly, and it took America almost 50 years to find out he won the 1968 election by selling the country out to a foreign power.
Both have been compressed into under 12 months for Trump.
Think about that.
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