U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from a state visit in Britain, September 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
alt headline: Trump's raging with lawmaker's wife is really about the hole in his soul: columnist
Salon's Amanda Marcotte spoke to Greg Sargent for The New Republic's morning podcast on Thursday, in which the political commentators agreed that President Donald Trump's psychosis is on full display once again.
The conversation began with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), who is not only one of the most endangered Republicans up for reelection in the 2026 midterm elections. The Republican is one of the few willing to fight back against Trump's new slush fund that will dole out cash to allies.
"I think he’s trying to save Trump — and especially the Republican Party — from Trump," Marcotte said of Fitzpatrick. "You know, Trump should be writing him thank-you letters. Because here’s the thing: I’m sure that Trump sees he’s a lame duck. He doesn’t have to run for office again. So there is a strong possibility that he just doesn’t care about voters or political popularity or approval ratings or whatever."
She explained that Trump "is very dumb" but even he understands "that if Democrats take the House in January, this is not going to get easier for him. We’re going to be looking at a lot of hearings. We’re going to look at investigations. I think that the Epstein files are going to come roaring back to life."
Still, Trump is raging at Fitzpatrick after his pledge to stop the slush fund went viral on social media. Sargent played a clip of Trump, so angry, that he attacked a reporter who happens to be married to the GOP lawmaker.
"Trump sounds like he’s in rough shape there," Sargent said. "He doesn’t drink, so it can’t be that. Now, I don’t think Trump was raging at Fitzpatrick over his bill targeting the slush fund. I think it’s some other thing Fitzpatrick has opposed, like the ballroom. But clearly, Trump is drunk with power, having ousted many Republicans in primaries in recent days. Yet at the same time, he’s still furious that he can’t control all of them."
But Marcotte thinks that Trump is simply desperate to "have it all" as part of some psychological desperation for control.
"It’s all about filling the hole in his soul that he’s been trying to fill his entire life," she said. "And I think that’s what we’re seeing right here. And it is unfortunate because it would be one thing if it was only Republicans that were being tortured by this man’s deep, deep personality disorders. But it’s all of us. Unfortunately, we’re all in this together."
She went on to say that there are likely plenty of low-information voters who simply don't understand the slush fund because they don't get why someone like Trump would want so much more money when he's already a billionaire. But higher information voters who are similar to people like former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), will see the Trump slush fund as not merely about corruption but "the reason that you don’t have any money is because Trump took it all."