President Donald Trump is almost certainly going to snap after the GOP gets annihilated in the midterms, one of his former staffers wrote for The i Paper, and now, insiders are warning that it will make him even more bent on revenge.
Miles Taylor previously worked in the Department of Homeland Security in Trump's first term, rising to the office of Chief of Staff at the agency before departing in 2019 and becoming a vocal critic of his former boss. He first rose to prominence in secret, publishing an anonymous op-ed for The New York Times claiming to be part of a resistance against Trump's worst impulses within the administration.
On Tuesday, Taylor published his latest piece for The i Paper, in which he argued that it is clear to everyone who witnessed Trump in his first term what will happen in November: "MAGA will lose — and Trump will lose it."
"What the people who know him best will tell you is that [White House Chief of Staff Susie] Wiles may have a plan, but Trump doesn’t," Taylor wrote. "He’s already moved on to something else: the havoc he’s going to wreak in the aftermath."
He added later: "When I asked [former Trump official Stephanie Grisham] whether the President understands what he’s doing to Republican candidates this autumn, she didn’t hesitate. 'He doesn’t care,' she told me. 'If the House or the Senate flip, or both, he gets to spend the next two years playing the victim. He does not care if we win the midterms.' The party is fighting for its life, and its leader is already trying to weaponize the loss. For him, a hostile Congress is an excuse to let it rip, and Trump has never met an excuse he didn’t like, especially if it gives him licence to cause chaos."
Grisham also noted that the recent ads Trump has been running — touting his own image as a tough guy at the expense of GOP midterm candidates, using tax dollars to pay for them in defiance of federal law — are another glaring sign that Trump has no interest in what happens to his party in the upcoming elections. According to Taylor, Grisham said: "A man actually fighting for his party to win would be touting his candidates... but a man trying to distance himself ahead of their expected losses (and trying to secure his own legacy) spends the ad dollars on himself."
"I also queried several reporters who’ve covered Trump up close for years about what they’re expecting," Taylor continued. "Brian Karem has reported from every White House since Ronald Reagan, including Trump. (He’s currently suing to get his White House press pass back.) 'I’m not convinced Donald Trump reads anything, much less a playbook,' he told me when I asked him whether the President’s recent moves showed he was becoming more despotic. 'Call him authoritarian, call him a spoiled brat, call him a bully. That’s who Donald Trump is.' Karem sees the man becoming more unhinged if he loses control of either chamber of Congress."
He added further: "Jim Acosta shares a similar view. He also had his credentials pulled by this president in 2018 for asking tough questions and won them back in court. He’s covered Trump for a decade, and he’s blunter still. 'We’re in the throes… of a wannabe dictator who cannot handle negative coverage,' he said. Like the others, he predicts an even more unpredictable Trump, partly because of a staff who won’t stop him. 'They’re just placating him and letting him do these things without any pushback. It’s a signal that he will do just about anything at this point.' Acosta says this about the run-up to the vote: 'The next 45 days, and probably the 45 days after that, are going to be pure hell in this country.'"
