Seasoned White House correspondent Brian Karem, who has covered President Donald Trump full time since 2016, says in a piece for Salon that he's "never seen the president this scared."
Karem, the former senior White House correspondent for Playboy, has covered every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan, and "sued Donald Trump three times successfully to keep his press pass," he says in his bio.
And while he says he had a front row seat to "the carnage" of Trump's first term, this time around, it's different, Karem writes, noting Trump is playing the "victim — at least according to Presidential Pep Secretary Karoline Leavitt."
The president's actions, Karem says, are "those of a despot trying to seize power." The White House correspondent pointed to Trump's demand for the military to use American cities as training grounds for the U.S. military and his proliferation of ICE agents who beat and detain American citizens.
"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump’s dog of war, has instituted some of the most racist regulations seen in the military since it was integrated nearly 80 years ago," Karem adds.
Karem says there's more to Trump's actions than despotism, but warns "there’s a deeper reason why recently he’s sounding even more maniacal."
"He is the proverbial New York sewer rat, cornered and lashing out in a desperate attempt to survive. He also knows he is becoming more vulnerable. But it’s not just his own mortality, shrinking mental acuity and the Jeffrey Epstein case that is scaring him," Karem says
Setting Trump off like "a wild animal with its leg caught in a trap," Karem says, is not the Epstein story, but his 2023 indictment on 37 felony counts stemming from an FBI raid on Mar a Lago that turned up classified documents.
Despite the case being dismissed by ally and U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in July 2024, Karem says the case was considered one of the strongest criminal cases against Trump.
"He’s apparently still so worried about the case that he’s trying to put up costly roadblocks against someone who has only a chance of getting the information released," Karem muses.
"Trump’s fear is palpable, and like a New York sewer rat, that’s when he’s at his most dangerous," he writes.
Karem notes Trump has a "desire for total control before he loses all command of his mental and physical health."
"Older and increasingly more mentally incontinent," Trump, Karem says, "is not what he was," but "Trump and his Project 2025 cabal won’t be happy until the entire nation is reduced to the socioeconomic levels of rural eastern Kentucky or southern Mississippi."
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, Karem says, is waiting in the wings, having proven he "is capable of pinch hitting for the sultan of political swat."
According to a source close to Trump, "there is a growing fear that someone in his own inner-circle may whisper the words '25th Amendment,' end the Trump presidency and usher in 'The Age of Ultron' — I mean Vance. That, more than anything else, has Puff Donny scared," he adds.