While Donald Trump’s most recent target has been NBC News, the president’s general demeanor has reportedly been deteriorating due to more pressing matters. Specifically, Luther Strange’s loss in the Alabama Republican primary and Bob Corker’s “adult day care” comments and follow-ups regarding the situation at the White House. As Fox News host Neil Cavuto warned the president Tuesday night, he’d better be careful because he’s “running out of friends” at an alarming rate. Hopefully Trump takes the television’s advice, because according to a new report in Vanity Fair, advisers fear he is “unraveling.”
Per Gabriel Sherman, the same reporter who helped take down Roger Ailes, Strange’s defeat and Corker’s remarks have put Trump in a particularly foul mood these past few weeks. As a result, his sources in the White House have described the president as “unstable,” “losing a step” and — as already mentioned — “unraveling.” After Roy Moore, the GOP Senate candidate backed by former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, defeated Strange in September, Trump apparently “saw the cult of personality was broken.” Strange’s loss despite the president’s endorsement “was a huge blow to his psyche.”
But wait, there’s more:
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.
Schiller left his post alongside Trump in September, a staffing change that apparently “crushed” the president. No specific reason was given at the time for the resignation, but according to Vantity Fair, Trump’s former security chief “quit last month after Kelly told Schiller he needed permission to speak to the president and wanted written reports of their conversations.” Unsurprisingly, the White House denied this account — as well as Sherman’s contention that Trump was unhappy. ” “The President’s mood is good and his outlook on the agenda is very positive,” said an official.
Speaking of Bannon, Sherman spoke with White House staffers concerned not with impeachment, but the 25th Amendment, which “provides the procedures for replacing the president or vice president in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation.” Some fear Trump’s cabinet may invoke it to remove him from office. When Bannon mentioned it to the president, he reportedly asked, “What’s that?” If that weren’t enough, a source told Sherman that Bannon went around telling everyone “he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term.” So yeah, there’s that too.
(Via Vanity Fair)