White House Alarms: Trump Watches TV, Tweets, Trusts ‘Gut Instincts’

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Last updated on September 26th, 2018 at 05:45 am

People in the White House are getting worried. According to insiders who were interviewed by Robert Costa from the Washington Post, the President of the United States has quit talking to people and has become very isolated. They say he spends most of his time watching cable TV and tweeting.

The concern these officials have is that as the president becomes more isolated he is tuning out other advisers. In other words, he is getting most of his information from the television instead of competent and knowledgeable experts who are available to him.

The result, they say, is that decisions are made by the leader of the free world on the basis of his gut instincts rather than on the basis of study of the problem and reasoned analysis.

“The way it’s really described to me by a lot of Trump sources is that the president is isolated,” Costa said on the MSNBC show “Morning Joe.” “He has these aides and advisors he counts on, but he’s really watching television and relying on his own gut instincts.”

“That’s caused some alarm inside the president’s circle,” he added, “that as he becomes more besieged by political and legal problems that he could rely more on the fiery types around him and his own gut instincts than bringing in establishment Republicans.”

Costa said that when White House counsel Don McGahn leaves it will create one more vacant office in an increasingly empty West Wing of the White House.

“Inside the White House it’s pretty sparse,” Costa said. “You have Kellyanne Conway, you have John Kelly, who’s been pretty beleaguered, not really a political chief of staff, also looking perhaps for the exit.”

“Sarah Huckabee Sanders has made it clear she may not stay forever in this term,” he added.

Costa also said that the president’s outside legal team is expanding even as his White House staff dwindles, due to the mounting lawsuits and legal troubles facing him.

“Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow are probably not enough if you’re facing more challenges ahead,” Costa said. “You may need to bring in more lawyers on the outside team so the White House can try to function as a White House and have a more sprawling bolstered legal team on the outside.”

Costa also wrote:

“The president and some of his advisers have discussed possibly adding veteran defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who currently represents Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, to Trump’s personal legal team if an impeachment battle or other fights with Congress emerge after the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the discussions.”

Trump recently has consulted his personal attorneys about the likelihood of impeachment proceedings. And McGahn and other aides have invoked the prospect of impeachment to persuade the president not to take actions or behave in ways that they believe would hurt him, officials said.

Still, Trump has not directed his lawyers or his political aides to prepare an action plan, leaving allies to fret that the president does not appreciate the magnitude of what could be in store next year.

There is no doubt that Donald Trump is winging it day-to-day and has no plan for his presidency. Every day he tweets out attacks on the press as well as many of his other favorite designated enemies.

In Donald Trump’s world, he gets all the information he needs from Fox TV, and Twitter provides him the means to communicate his policy decisions as they arise from his gut. This is not a pretty picture, but it is currently how the executive branch of the U.S. government is operating.

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.