(AFP) – After a relatively disciplined start to Donald Trump’s second term, the White House is grappling with signs of turmoil that have revived memories of his first chaotic presidency. From the extraordinary departure of his new press secretary after five days to questions about the future of his chief of staff, there have been a series of upheavals in recent weeks.
The ructions come at the worst possible time for Trump, with many Republicans fearing that the president’s dismal polling will drag on their chances in next month’s midterm elections. The White House strongly denies there is infighting in what US media called the “Wild Wild West Wing” — with the fiercest pushback reserved for reports that Trump was looking to replace Susie Wiles, his ultra-loyal chief of staff.
“No one is distracted by FAKE NEWS. This team is strong, united, and focused on President Donald J. Trump, delivering his America First agenda, and winning the midterms,” White House Spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement to AFP. “The anonymous ‘sources’ peddling this nonsense are self-serving opportunists focused on themselves. We’re focused on the President and the American people.” The president himself denied the reports on Wiles last week. On Monday he doubled down by giving Wiles a new job as head of a women’s health initiative launched by First Lady Melania Trump, praising Wiles as a “tremendous fighter” for her battle against breast cancer.
Trump calls Wiles the “ice maiden” after the Florida political operative masterminded his 2024 election win, and until recently the first ever female chief had maintained steely discipline at the White House. Gone were the incessant leaks from disgruntled officials, the infighting between Trump family members and cabinet secretaries, and the personnel merry-go-round that marred Trump’s first term.
But then came a series of controversies in the past two weeks. First was Trump’s hiring of the inexperienced Katie Zacharia as his press secretary, in a process that administration officials said had largely bypassed Wiles. Five days after starting the job, Zacharia was fired after one halting 14-minute briefing in which she answered three questions and called her husband “my president.” Trump also pushed out his ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle — the ex-fiancee of his son Don Jr — amid allegations that she sought money from one of the president’s supporters. Then Trump canceled Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s plans to livestream the firing squad execution of a convicted military base mass shooter — a plan that Vice President JD Vance had expressed doubts over.
Trump also ordered an investigation into a dispute between two close allies over allegations that one of them had misappropriated a donation to the Kennedy Center (which Trump has renamed after himself). The feuding even spread to the State Department where a close Trump ally, Paolo Zampolli, described the administration as “chaotic” after being removed from a special envoy job following a bitter feud with a top official. At the same time, Trump’s Russia policy also descended into chaos. He announced a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin, lashed out at Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, and traded blame with Elon Musk about whether or not Washington was restricting satellite access to Kyiv.
Trump insists that his focus is on the midterms. He has been traveling daily around the country to rally Republicans. The problem? Many Republicans worry Trump’s record low approval ratings and public anger over fuel prices that have spiked over his Iran war are a turnoff to voters.
A bad result in the midterms would place renewed pressure on Trump. Senior White House officials insist their private polling shows they can still win — but that they are ready to fight in case they don’t. The Democrats are widely expected to come at Trump hard with multiple investigations if they seize control of Congress, and Trump himself has warned he could be impeached. If so, the last two years of Trump 2.0 could be very rocky indeed.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
