President Donald Trump in Dearborn, Michigan, January 13, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump and his shrinking administration are increasingly acting in "survival mode," reporter Maggie Haberman explained on MS NOW, with one of his latest outbursts showing just how much he no longer cares about his MAGA base.
Haberman is a longtime reporter and author best known for her close coverage of Trump and his political career, including her explosive new exposé of his second term, Regime Change. On Tuesday morning, she appeared on MS NOW's Morning Joe and was pressed about several new developments surrounding the president, including his recent statement lashing out against his voters for opposing data centers. Hatred for these AI-focused building projects has become remarkably consistent across partisan lines, leaving Trump in a tough bind given his efforts to court the AI industry to his side.
"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign," Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday.
When asked about the comment, Haberman invoked a notable quote from former President George W. Bush, who once joked to a group of wealthy donors that they were his base. Now, she added, "thetech leaders have becomeTrump's base in many ways," noting the parade of "just onetech leader after another,coming and paying tribute tothe president" early on in his second term.
"And he hasgotten very enmeshed in that," Haberman said. "He did become, pretty quickovernight, an evangelist for AIafter being really concernedabout it. But now, yes, youhave a scenario where he issaying things that most peoplewho voted for him, a number ofpeople who voted for him, arevery loud that they don't want. And there's just — hisinformation ecosystem is very small."
Haberman was also pressed about the odd circumstances surrounding the GOP's midterm convention, a first-of-its-kind event set to take place September 9-10 in Dallas. Many observers have noted that these events will be taking place on the same nights as major opening games for the new NFL season, likely drawing significant attention away from them. Haberman chalked this error up to Trump's increasingly small inner circle being more focused on "survival mode" and not being able to see the bigger picture.
"That wasan error that some peoplearound him privatelyacknowledged was something theyhad not been paying attentionto," Haberman explained. "But again, it speaks to howsmall his circle is. It speaksto how tiny this group ofpeople, who are not just makingdecisions in the government,but who are advising himpolitically, is; they're notlooking at broader pictures like this. They are in survivalmode. And again, that's finefor themselves. But you haveall of these members ofCongress, you have senators whoare complaining privately. Someare fine doing this, some donot want to. They don't want tocome off the trail. They don'twant to give instant ad copy todemocrats of their, you know,faces of them sitting in thiscrowd while the president sayswhatever he's going to say."