After the Jan. 6 riot, Donald Trump did the unthinkable: He largely disappeared from public view. It wasn’t just that he’d been permanently banned from Twitter (until a new owner took over, anyway). He suddenly wasn’t holding pressers in front of helicopters or calling into Fox News or any of the other ways he uses the press to do his bidding. It seemed bizarre that one of history’s more tireless narcissists had agreed to accept that he’d loss…for a time. A new book alleges that he was really going through some feels.
Liz Cheney says McCarthy claimed he went to Mar-a-Lago after January 6th because Trump was depressed and was not eating pic.twitter.com/Ag0IULSHzp
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 28, 2023
Per The Daily Beast, an excerpt from Liz Cheney’s forthcoming book Oath and Honor describes one of the ousted high-ranking GOP representative’s communiques with future ousted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Cheney had just discovered that McCarthy — who’d recently put the blame for the Capitol siege on Trump — had shlepped down to Mar-a-Lago. McCarthy claimed his trip wasn’t about saving face among the party’s Trump die-hards. It was because he felt bad for the poor future failed blogger.
“They’re really worried,” McCarthy allegedly told her. “Trump’s not eating, so they asked me to come see him.”
“What? You went to Mar-a-Lago because Trump’s not eating?” an appalled Cheney responded.
“Yeah, he’s really depressed,” he’s said to have replied.
Of course, the big guy would bounce back. He kept a low profile for a little while, returning to fan the flames of baseless election fraud claims. Even today, nearly three years into the Biden era, he hasn’t formally conceded. Would you believe he’s crushing the polls for the Republican 2024 ticket? And the world’s most famous McDonald’s stan certainly got his appetite back.
Maybe his game plan all along was to lay low, not say crazy things for a few months, then come roaring back. Not even dining with anti-Semites or racking up 91 criminal charges has dinged that Teflon armor. But perhaps before his inexplicable comeback, Trump really did, if just for a bit, feel like what he is: a loser.
(Via The Daily Beast)