Daily Blast podcaster Greg Sargent says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and every level of the Republican Party is scrambling to prop up President Donald Trump as health issues, falling pol numbers and his ensnarement in the Jeffrey Epstein debacle overwhelm his presidency.
Leavitt, Sargent said, is the “perfect window through which to understand what’s going on in Trumpworld,” and much of that now pertains to “boosting [Trump’s] lagging spirits.”
Sargent spoke with Mark Jacob, author of the Stop the Presses Substack, who believed Leavitt to be the clearest “example” of a whole administration that caters to the ego of one man.
READ MORE: 'People are going to be shocked': Backlash predicted for GOP as disaster looms
Sargent pointed to Leavitt’s belittling response to a journalist who probed Trump’s mental state by asking about Trump’s recent Unabomber claim, where the president fabricated a story about his uncle teaching the “Unabomber” at MIT, despite “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski never attending to MIT.
“Andrew, with so many issues going on in the world I’m a little bit surprised you would ask such a question,” Leavitt saidthe reporter. “… The president’s uncle did in fact teach at MIT. He was a very intelligent professor. The president’s very proud of his family. … In fact, the president as a letter from his uncle on the MIT letterhead that sits in the Oval Office dining room. Maybe we’ll let you see it sometime.”
The question is not “frivolous,” said Sargent because “this is the president of the U.S. … telling stories that raise questions about his mental fitness, which is a legitimate question.” But more to the point, Sargent said, was Leavitt’s dangerous pandering to the president while at the mic, making a point to “slip in a little line” specifically “for Trump’s ears”.
“It’s like she understands that [his uncle] was on Trump’s mind and she was catering to a child. She knows the president wants to hear about his uncle working at MIT. The whole thing is just bizarre,” said Sargent, adding “She’s good at speaking to Trump’s pathologies.”
READ MORE: 'Worse by the day': Analyst reveals how Trump is rapidly losing backing of far-right media
Leavitt again slid into “comforting mode” when the press conference shifted to the Epstein drama.
“The president has been transparent, he has followed through on his promises to the American people, but he doesn’t like to see Democrats and the mainstream media covering this like it’s the biggest story that the American people care about,” Leavitt told reporters.
She then deflected to Trump’s work ethic, claiming “The president has been working so hard this week.”
“She goes out of her way to get these things in. ‘The president’s been working so hard’, but what’s striking is there’s no planet on which there’s any truth to that. But also, this is Leavitt speaking directly to Donald Trump, really trying to keep that ego pumped up,” said Sargent, particularly at a time when new polls show him cratering on many issues.
READ MORE: This jaw-dropping truth about the Supreme Court will make you furious
“He’s very vulnerable now since this is the press conference when Trump’s health problems came out,” said Jacob. “She wants to talk about him being the hardest working man in America despite golfing all the time on the taxpayers’ dime. It’s a matter of her trying to pump him up, but the thing about that is the rest of us don’t need her doing that. She’s not doing the job of the American people. Why doesn’t she just go into a room with Trump so she can say nice things to him all the time.”
But the need to pet and soothe the president “is seeping down to every crevice of the Republican Party and its media apparatus,” said Sargent.
“You’ve got Rep. Randy (R-Fla.) claiming Trump ‘is the most transparent president we’ve ever had’ and a Fox News personality claiming ‘I’ve shaken the man’s [bruised up] hand. He gives a very vigorous hand shake,’” recounts Sargent. “Then you have Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) responding to Trump calling his constituents ‘stupid weaklings’ for caring about Epstein, saying Trump ‘has a strategy in all this, and I suspect it will play out because he wins every time.’”
READ MORE: Donald Trump just blew his cover as the 'real victim' in new scam on MAGA
“It’s cultlike behavior that I find unnerving, creeping down to every last level of the party, down into Fox news,” said Sargent. “It’s pervasive and alarming.”
Hear the full podcast at this link.
