The King of Chaos Faces the End of His Reign

There is nothing like the muggy summer heat of Washington, D.C.

The closer it gets to Independence Day, the more oppressive the heat becomes. The humidity, along with the susurrus of cicadas and the now-diminished sounds of traffic and protests, closes in on you like the trash compactor in Star Wars.

True, boarded-up businesses are slowly reopening. A few more people are out and about, but it still feels as if you might turn the corner and find Will Smith’s character from I Am Legend.

I decided to walk near Lafayette Square, where the government has been quick to clean up the scorched buildings and broken glass from recent protests, because I’d been asked to meet with an administration official I hadn’t seen in person since March—before the dark times. Before the Empire.

We grabbed a coffee at a newly reopened Starbucks near the White House and walked with our masks on for several blocks as we talked.

“It’s as if he wants to lose,” I was told about President Trump.

I nodded. “Well, you get no arguments from me,” I said.

“I’m serious. It’s been downhill since Tulsa. The polls don’t look good. The Russian story….”

“Which one? Bounty Gate?”

“Yes. I don’t think he wants to run again.”

During the past three years, I’ve heard the same thing, several times, from several sources inside the White House. I’ve been told Trump is delusional, out of touch, lazy. This always leads to another round of questions—and one question in particular.

“Why are you still there?” I often ask this of those I know who work at the White House—especially those who otherwise seem to display good sense. There are many more of those people than you’d think, but I’ve never received a satisfying answer to my question. I think there are a variety of reasons, and any one of them may apply at any particular moment.

But the mood in the White House these days is growing more and more grim. The coronavirus pandemic is getting worse. Protests continue. The economy is still in the toilet, and Trump’s handpicked Supreme Court ruled against him. He trails in the polls. And there’s Bounty Gate: It appears Russia paid Taliban-linked bounty hunters to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan.

When The New York Times broke the story, it threw many at the White House into a tailspin. Trump denied it and his press secretary demanded The New York Times return its Pulitzer prizes.

“The White House response is telling as they are attacking the leaks and claiming that the American people finding out about this is the real problem,” wrote Democratic activist Adam Parkhomenko in his newsletter, Today’s Big Stuff. “But real people who lost people in Afghanistan have questions.”

On Sunday evening Trump tweeted about the bounty allegations, “Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP. Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe the Fake News @nytimesbooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!!”

So Trump was briefed, according to him, by his intelligence team, who said the information was not credible.

But on Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “There was not a consensus among the intelligence community, and in fact there were dissenting opinions…and it would not be elevated to the president until it was verified.”

So about half a day after Trump said he’d been briefed on the Russia bounties and the intel community confirmed the information wasn’t credible, McEnany told the world the president hadn’t been briefed, because there was not a consensus among the intelligence community.

Was either true?

“I wouldn’t believe anything coming out of this White House,” my senior-level White House source told me between sips of latte.

But the White House settled on saying Trump wasn’t briefed, and they were sticking with it despite the President’s tweet. Tuesday afternoon, in a hastily called briefing (reporters were given less than an hour notice), McEnany once again defended the president. She also said he was the “most informed person on the planet when it comes to the threats we face.” He didn’t know about the bounty and McEnany apparently indicated Trump didn’t read his intelligence reports. “The president does read,” she said as a means to defend him.

I’ve never before seen a hastily called White House briefing to inform the world the president reads. We break new ground every day with Donald Trump.

Trump wants to change the subject and let you know he’s going after vandals. He’s so proud to do so, on Saturday he tweeted several “Wanted” posters featuring those who may have participated in defacing statues. Apparently Trump is now lobbying to be John Walsh on America’s Most Wanted.

So naturally my question, posed to the White House press staff, was: You signed an Executive Order to protect statues from vandals. How do you plan to protect living American military personnel from bounty hunters?

The White House wouldn’t or couldn’t answer.

All of this leads to the obvious: Trump is scared out of his pancake makeup he’s going to lose the election in the fall. I know this because I’m still on mailing lists for both Biden and Trump. The president sends out as many emails in a day begging for money as Biden sends out in a week.

One of the latest came from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “We need you to pick up the pace, Brian,” she scolded me in her email, sent to potential contributors. “I’m going to call the Trump Online Fundraising Team at 9 P.M. tonight to get an update on who has donated so I can report back to President Trump. I’ll have no choice but to tell him the truth, so make sure you contribute NOW before it’s too late.”

The idea of Sanders telling anyone the truth is laughable, but so is using Sanders to intimidate people into contributing money to the president’s re-election campaign.

As for the president himself, he’s so desperate he sent me another email on Tuesday. “Brian,” it said. “I emailed you. The Vice President emailed you. My sons, Don Jr. and Eric, both emailed you. My campaign manager, Brad, emailed you. Lara emailed you. Newt Gingrich emailed you. Sarah Huckabee Sanders emailed you. Trump Finance emailed you. And now I’m emailing you. Again. Each day, my team has given me a list of Patriots who have stepped up to help us reach our critical End-of-Quarter Goal, and each day, I’ve noticed YOUR NAME is STILL MISSING.”

Trump’s desperation is palpable, and it appears his staff can no longer take it.

When I first began meeting with Trump officials for background chats, we met at diners or restaurants far outside of the district where they needn’t fear being seen with me. Now we walk up and down the sidewalk within blocks of the White House. The coronavirus isn’t the only reason, and the Starbucks coffee isn’t that great. The president is losing his power—even over his own people.

If Barack Obama had been accused of turning a blind eye to Russia as that country paid bounty hunters to kill American soldiers, the Wilhelm screams across the Potomac would be undeniable and unstoppable. Some of the White House staff now fully understands the depths of Trump’s dishonesty, and they are screaming.

The president is in free fall. It is beginning to look like his re-election will fail. There is talk he may not run. There is concern from inside his own camp that he is delusional. This president is the king of chaos, but the chaos is now threatening to swallow him and anyone who is even peripherally attached to him.

And there was even more bad news for Trump on Tuesday. Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the country when he testified before a Senate committee that we may see 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. “We can’t just focus on the areas that are having the surge,” he said. “It would put the entire country at risk.”

“I’m very concerned because it could get very bad.”

Senator Rand Paul scolded Fauci for not being optimistic enough; Trump simply ignored him.

Other than tweeting “THE LONE WARRIOR,” Trump remained relatively silent, isolated and afraid.

As my favorite administration official, who likes to talk on background, walked back to the White House, I could see in the eyes above the mask how very concerned, lonely and vulnerable this person is. But that’s the whole country right now.

The United States has faced overwhelming problems before. Look no further into the past than 1968: the Vietnam war. Racism. Body bags. Assassinations. Riots. Protests. It was all there. The music was better.

But back then the country had an underlying sense of self-confidence lacking in America today. As recently as Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, we had a president who said, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. And so today, we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and drift—a new season of American renewal has begun.”

Today we have Donald Trump—and even members of his staff are now facing the fact that for the good of the country, he must go.