President Donald Trump leaves following a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026. REUTERS Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump is sinking deeper into "despair" as he and the GOP are overcome by "extreme panic," one former Trump staffer wrote for The i Paper, adding that he knows from experience what comes next.
Miles Taylor previously worked in the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's first term, rising to the level of chief of staff before departing in 2019. He first gained notoriety after publishing an anonymous New York Times op-ed claiming to be part of a movement within the White House resisting the president's worst impulses. Now, he has emerged as an outspoken critic of his former boss, making numerous media appearances to offer his own unique perspective on Trump's political machinations.
On Tuesday, he published his latest piece for The i Paper, explaining why it is clear that things are not going well for the White House and the Republican Party overall.
"You can tell how a campaign thinks it’s doing by its closing argument in the final weeks," Taylor wrote. "Candidates who believe they’re winning talk about their record. Candidates who believe they’re losing throw everything at the wall, including the kitchen sink. Three weeks out from the U.S. midterm elections, Donald Trump and his allies are in a state of extreme panic. His opponents are cautiously celebrating this apparent validation that the MAGA movement is on the ropes. But I watched this US president lose up close, when I worked for him, which is why I see the panic as an ominous sign, too."
Amid all of the signs that Trump is scrambling for something, anything that might sway midterm voters, Taylor said that he was feeling overtaken by a grim sense of caution and deja vu, explaining what happened when Trump faced similar headwinds in his first term.
"The last time Trump believed he was losing, he searched for any voice near him that was willing to whisper back reassuring lies that he hadn’t really lost," Taylor wrote. "Indeed, in December 2020, he was in such denial that he summoned outside advisers Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and Patrick Byrne to the Oval Office to hear their pitch for seizing the voting machines from the election he had just lost. White House lawyers spent hours fighting them off. Weeks later, Trump spoke to a rally of MAGA followers who then marched across town and stormed the Capitol – although he did not make a direct call for violent action."
He continued: "These outsiders are what I call Trump’s 'crackpots cabinet.' As his anxiety about the midterms swells, he’s consulting with these flunkies about his options. The one that has me most worried is Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk and conspiracy theorist convicted of election interference. Trump spent a year pressuring Colorado’s governor to let her out of jail; within weeks of her release, she was having lunch at the White House with the President. Last Monday, according to Trump ally Ed Martin, she was back in the Oval Office discussing election 'plans,' which the White House won’t confirm or deny."
Taylor also detailed a conversation that he had with former chief of staff John Kelly as Trump's 2020 desperation became undeniable. Kelly said it was unlikely that Trump would "concede gracefully" if defeated, adding, "Nothing would please me more than if he chained himself to the Resolute desk, and they have to go in and cut the chains and carry him away in a straitjacket."
"The end result wasn’t far off," Taylor concluded. "This time, the people who’d happily hand him the chains are back in the Oval Office. They’re whispering in his ear again. And they’re telling him that desperate times call for desperate measures."
