Who’s running the show?
When former President Jimmy Carter passed away over the weekend, no one really cared what Donald Trump had to say about it. But it was notable that Trump made two separate tributes to Carter, written in entirely different styles, posted to social media within a short timeframe. It suggested that two different Trump handlers had written Carter tributes on Trump’s behalf, and that the handlers weren’t even bothering to check with each other before posting.
Of course on its own it didn’t mean much. No one would have expected Trump to be involved in writing something like a tribute to a President from an opposing party. Trump has only ever known how to say nice things about people he wants a favor from or is indebted to. But now the same scenario has repeated itself, only with much bigger stakes.
Over the weekend Donald Trump made a social media post referring to Mike Johnson as the “former” Speaker of the House, while implying that Johnson was “stupid.” But then on Monday, Trump made a social media post encouraging the Republican House to reelect Johnson as Speaker.
Wait a minute here. These two posts can’t possibly be compatible with each other. Even with Trump’s endorsement, Johnson will have a hard time finding the votes to remain Speaker in the new term. If Trump wants Johnson to remain Speaker, why would he publicly try to take Johnson’s legs out from under him right before endorsing him? There’s no world in which it makes sense that Trump would make these two posts about Johnson back to back. That’s because Trump most likely didn’t make these posts.
It’s nearly a given that these two posts, the one sabotaging Johnson and the one endorsing Johnson, were made by two different people in Trump’s circle with two different agendas. One of them wants Johnson gone, and the other wants Johnson to stay.
If these two factions ran these posts by Trump before posting them, then it’s even worse for Trump, because it would mean that Trump is just that easily swayed by whoever has spoken to him most recently, or that Trump doesn’t even remember his conversations from one day to the next.
In any case it’s becoming more clear by the day that Donald Trump is not a functioning participant in the Trump regime. The “Donald Trump” we’re getting on any given day is dependent upon which adviser or faction within his inner circle has the keys to Trump’s social media at that moment. Meanwhile Trump himself almost never appears in public and is content to sit home like a bump on a log. Trump is a complete goner. What’s this going to look like once he’s in office? They can’t keep this Weekend at Bernie’s routine going forever.
