Donald Trump’s own adviser publicly attacks him
As Donald Trump continues to unravel and go further off the rails, he’s facing increasing pushback from all sides. His own Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him a moron. Bob Corker, a Senator from his own party called him a toddler. America’s most famous athlete LeBron James called him a bum. Rapper Eminem called him things last night that are unprintable. Now even one of Trump’s own close longtime personal and political advisers is publicly attacking him for his behavior.
Trump doesn’t appear to legitimately have any real friends, but rather a collection of sycophants and partners in crime. The closest thing he has to a friend might be Thomas Barrack, who has served as one of Trump’s closest political advisers despite largely keeping himself out of the public eye in the process. But it appears Barrack has had enough. He’s staging what amounts to a de facto public intervention, by slamming Trump in a rare interview.
Barrack is telling the Washington Post that he’s “shocked” and “stunned” at Trump’s awful behavior and awful policies (link). Of course no one is actually surprised that Trump is acting this way; his deterioration is merely a logical extension of his awful behavior and policies during the campaign. But Barrack is clearly trying to use the media to send a message to Trump, saying “In my opinion, he’s better than this.”
That’s the kind of passive-aggressive attack you only invoke when you’re trying to convince a friend that he’s lost his way. Tom Barrack could pick up the phone and say it to Donald Trump directly. Instead, he doesn’t appear to believe that would go far enough. Instead, Trump is now being publicly attacked by a guy who’s not only one of his closest advisers, but probably his only friend. It’s a sign that even those who know Trump and sympathize with him think he’s gone scarily off the deep end.
