Our current highest profile circus in Washington involves Anthony Scaramucci as Trump’s communications director, who is busy threatening to fire everyone AND stab them “in the front” if they dare to leak information to the press. From The New York Times:
The clash between Mr. Scaramucci and Mr. Priebus offers a case study in how the Trump White House operates, a conflict divorced from facts, untethered from the basics of how government works, enabled by the lack of any organizational structure and driven by ambition, fear, animosity and envy.
My Arts Editor shares my feelings on this specific circus:
I wonder what they’re trying to distract us from now.
Tim Tiana Lowe on National Review has similar, if unconscious, sentiments:
If you think that Trump will be incensed by these distractions, then you clearly haven’t been keeping up with the Trumpians. This is a man whose idea of intimacy is Marla Maples boasting on the cover of the New York Post about his sexual prowess, and whose idea of leadership is a public execution (see: Lewandowski, Corey; the entire cast of the Apprentice). Trump grew weary of Sean Spicer’s attempt to stammer appropriate niceties to the Fake News MSM. Why please people when you can entertain them?
Much like his namesake, the scaramouch, the Mooch masquerades as a useful idiot and a sly schemer, performing both roles while never forgetting to enthrall the audience and, most important, the boss. Today, the spotlight is off the dumpster fire that is the Senate’s health-care negotiations, and instead the Beltway class is fanning itself over the impropriety of Scaramucci’s lewd humor and “front-stabbing.” And so, however this turns out, the Mooch wins. He has entertained, shamed his foe, and impressed the boss — just as Trump’s favorites did on The Apprentice. McKay Coppins at The Atlantic notes today that Trump favors surrounding himself with “mini-mes — hard-charging, bellicose big talkers who idolize their boss and labor to perfect their imitations of him.” One could take the point one step further. While Trump takes his steaks well-done with ketchup when not eating Big Macs and Filet-O-Fish, Scaramucci frequents Hunt & Fish Club for veal parmigiana, decked out in Loro Piana suits. In truth, he’s not really Trump in miniature. He’s a genuinely self-made Trump — a Freudian projection of the president’s deepest dreams.
And Steve Benen on Maddowblog comes to the obvious conclusion:
The spectacle of feuds is obviously interesting, but it’s not what’s important. Rather, what matters is the unsettling realization that the White House is being run by clownish amateurs who don’t seem to realize they’re in over their heads, led by an incompetent president who’s a bit too comfortable in the noxious culture he’s created.
It is not a recipe for governing success.
Sure. But let’s ask a simple question: does President Trump’s base realize this?
Think about it. That base has spent an enormous amount of time listening to Rush Limbaugh & other incendiary hosts who had little reason to portray Obama’s Washington in an honest manner. For them, it was disaster, scandal, and bullying 24 hours a day – never mind that the actual scandal count was on the closer order of zero, the bullying consisted of polite suggestions, and the disasters, compared to GOP President Bush, were non-existent[1].
So to them, if they are watching their President closely, this may not seem all that unusual. Without the proper history, perhaps what they see seems like what they’d expect from a President Trump – a lot of drama and temper tantrums, and meanwhile things are getting done.
Of course, there’s a big difference between the small business world – or The Apprentice – and a government with nuclear weapons and multitudinous international responsibilities. But is this clear to his base?
Do they actually realize how unusual and dangerous Trump’s actions will be?
Or has the right-wing echo chamber so cut them off from reality that they think this is all normal?
1In a note far too depressing to explore deeply, I must ask, Does conservatism now simply consist of dishonest messaging? Is that the full content of American conservatism?
