Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trumps focus shifts to pet projects as Republican midterm prospects crumble

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Trumps focus shifts to pet projects as Republican midterm prospects crumble · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump plans to break ground on his Washington, D.C.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: arch within two weeks in defiance of the approvals process.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It is one of several vanity projects that he embarked
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  Speaker 1: on unilaterally at great taxpayer expense. Here's Bloomberg White House
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: correspondent Jeff Mason's take on the strategy.
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  Speaker 2: Construction is different from domestic policy or foreign policy, that
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  Speaker 2: a new administration can come in and just chart their
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  Speaker 2: own course. Unless a candidate comes in and really wants
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  Speaker 2: to tear it down with a crane and with a
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  Speaker 2: wrecking ball, it's hard to undo.
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  Speaker 1: Joining me now, Chris Whipple, Vanity Fair contributing writer and
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  Speaker 1: author of several bestselling books about the White House chiefs
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of staff. He recently published a two part series following
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  Speaker 1: interviews with Susie Wiles. And boy, was it worth the read. Chris,
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  Speaker 1: welcome back, my friend.
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  Speaker 4: Does this make sense?
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  Speaker 1: Might Trump be trying to leave his mark without enduring
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  Speaker 1: foreign policy or domestic policy in the way that previous
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  Speaker 1: presidents did? Is he pursuing architectural immortality that could cost
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: taxpayers dearly if they want to erase him?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I had to laugh when you mentioned, when you
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  Speaker 3: used the word strategy. This is just what Donald Trump
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  Speaker 3: wants to talk about. This is Trump being Trump. He's
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  Speaker 3: dead in the water, drifting toward a waterfall, oblivious if
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  Speaker 3: any of the polls can.
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  Speaker 4: Be relied on for the midterms.
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  Speaker 3: And it's not as though there aren't smart people around
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  Speaker 3: him who would rather have him talk about affordability than
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  Speaker 3: a ballroom. The trouble is that, like everybody else in
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  Speaker 3: the cult that surrounds Donald Trump, they just can't get
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  Speaker 3: through to him. They've either given up telling him hard
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: truths or he simply won't hear it. You know, Trump
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  Speaker 3: cares not so much about Republican prospects in the midterms.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: What he really cares about is Trump and about his legacy.
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  Speaker 3: So he's going to talk about ballrooms and that's it.
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  Speaker 1: And look, he's putting Republicans at risk, right, when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to the midterm. Some, in fact, are actually panicked, Chris,
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  Speaker 1: because he has an unspent, what, $ 400 million war chest
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  Speaker 1: while you have organizers of the GOP midterm convention making
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  Speaker 1: a last-minute push to fill the arena because so few
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: are willing to shell out $ 25, 000 for a seat.
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  Speaker 4: How does this.
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  Speaker 1: White House approach to the midterms appear different this time around?
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  Speaker 1: Is Susie Wiles engaged at all on GOP politics?
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  Speaker 3: Well, again, I think Susie Wiles is engaged. I think
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  Speaker 3: James Blair, his top political advisor, is trying to get
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  Speaker 3: Trump to talk about the things they think they can
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  Speaker 3: sell in the midterms. The trouble is that Trump just
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  Speaker 3: will not hear it. Trump wants to talk about what
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  Speaker 3: he wants to talk about. He's not going to address
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  Speaker 3: the crises that he's failed to address, beginning with affordability
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  Speaker 3: and inflation and housing. and a pointless war of choice.
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  Speaker 3: So he's not going to go there. He wants to
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  Speaker 3: talk about his legacy and about ballrooms.
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  Speaker 4: And about arches.
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  Speaker 3: And no matter how you spin this record, it is
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  Speaker 3: what it is. And voters are clearly going to reject
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  Speaker 3: it in November if the polls are any indications.
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  Speaker 1: But Chris, are Susie Wiles and others around Trump, are
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: they talking to him about the average American struggle with
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  Speaker 1: the rising.
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  Speaker 4: Cost of rent, of food, of gas?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, could it be the president lacks sensitivity to
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  Speaker 1: these issues? I know that sounds like a silly question
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  Speaker 1: because the answer is like, well, yeah. But is that
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  Speaker 1: what this is all about, that even if someone's going
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  Speaker 1: to talk to him about it, it doesn't get through
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  Speaker 1: to him?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I don't think it does. I mean, way
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  Speaker 3: back almost a year ago when I was in the
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: White House talking to Susie Wiles and James Blair, Blair
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  Speaker 3: told me that it doesn't matter what we do about
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  Speaker 3: the Epstein scandal, for example, or half a dozen other
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: problems that they face. If they can't address affordability, we
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: are blanked, as he put it. Now, clearly, that argument
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  Speaker 3: is not getting through to Donald Trump. Trump is who
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  Speaker 3: he is. He believes what he wants to believe. There's
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  Speaker 3: a reason why Natalie Harp is still around and so
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  Speaker 3: close with him. And that's because she speaks Trump's language.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: They live on another planet, which is the world, according
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: to Trump, where the news is always good and everything
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  Speaker 3: comes up roses. And as as Maggie Haberman reported in
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: her book, everything turns out OK.
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  Speaker 4: That's what we're dealing with. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So what about the impact of policy, Chris? Is anyone
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: connecting the dots between ending TPS and the tragedy of
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  Speaker 1: a 20-year-old Ohio student athlete who took his own life
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  Speaker 1: after weeks of expressing his humiliation, his fear over being
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: fitted with an ankle monitor? And if Trump surrendered his
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  Speaker 1: policy agenda to ideological extremists inside the White House, will
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  Speaker 1: his chief of staff rein those people in?
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  Speaker 3: Now, you know, the one thing I learned, Alex, after
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  Speaker 3: spending 11 months talking to Susie Wiles for that piece
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  Speaker 3: in Vanity Fair last December, was that while she began
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  Speaker 3: by talking about how important it was to tell the
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  Speaker 3: president hard truths, over time it became clear that she
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  Speaker 3: just had utterly given up that challenge. And she told
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  Speaker 3: me she told me that they had an agreement, a
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  Speaker 3: loose agreement, as she put it, that after 90 days,
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  Speaker 3: the revenge and retribution tour would end. I asked her
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  Speaker 3: months later, what happened to that? Well, she couldn't, again,
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  Speaker 3: offer an explanation other than I'm afraid that nobody in
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  Speaker 3: this White House can tell the president hard truths.
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  Speaker 4: Hmm.
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  Speaker 1: A White House official says, Chris, that First Lady Melania
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Trump is going to skip Trump's midterm convention in Dallas
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  Speaker 1: next week. Her public outings have been few and far
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  Speaker 1: between this year, while Trump, to your point, the aide
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  Speaker 1: Natalie Harp, has been ever present. Do you see a
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  Speaker 1: world where Harp emerges with a larger role, maybe the
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  Speaker 1: next White House press secretary?
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  Speaker 4: Or do you think that position.
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  Speaker 1: Might go to Maria Bartiromo, who parted ways with Fox
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  Speaker 1: this week?
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  Speaker 4: Who knows? It's hard.
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  Speaker 3: It's just impossible to know But yes, it's conceivable that
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  Speaker 3: Natalie Harp could have a promotion of some kind. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: she acts as a virtual staff secretary. You know, in
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  Speaker 3: a normal White House, a staff secretary tees up reliable
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  Speaker 3: information on every side of an issue for the president
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  Speaker 3: to make decisions. Natalie has usurped that role, in effect,
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  Speaker 3: just giving Trump sunny news and everything he wants to hear.
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  Speaker 4: So could she be a press secretary? Sure, it's possible.
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  Speaker 3: What's what's clear, Alex, is that she has a kind
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  Speaker 3: of magic with Trump. She has a hold over him
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  Speaker 3: that I think is is comparable to Susie Wiles's influence
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  Speaker 3: over Trump. Trump trusts her just as he trusts Susie
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  Speaker 3: Wiles because she speaks his language and she's she's on
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  Speaker 3: his side unequivocally. And so that's the litmus test for
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  Speaker 3: people who have influence around Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: It's always a good conversation with you, Chris Whipple, my friend.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
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  Speaker 4: Good luck on your next adventure.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'll let you know what I do. Thanks.