Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles has been granting access to Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple. The magazine published some gob-smacking excerpts of those interviews today.
I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but my initial reaction was to wonder if Wiles secretly hates her job and wants to be blown out the airlock.
Trump, she told me, “has an alcoholic’s personality.” Vance’s conversion from Never Trumper to MAGA acolyte, she said, has been “sort of political.” The vice president, she added, has been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.”
Russell Vought, architect of the notorious Project 2025 and head of the Office of Management and Budget, is “a right-wing absolute zealot.”
When I asked her what she thought of Musk reposting a tweet about public sector workers killing millions under Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, she replied: “I think that’s when he’s microdosing.” (She says she doesn’t have first-hand knowledge.)… “He’s an avowed ketamine [user]… And he’s an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it’s not helpful, but he is his own person…”
Upon reflection, I don’t think it’s that Wiles wants to be fired. Maybe she believes she’s indispensable to the operation of the careening clown car that is Trump II.
Perhaps she’s right about that; I don’t know. But in quoting people who’ve seen Wiles in action, Whipple reveals something about Wiles’ sense of her role as rabid dog handler.
Vance described Wiles’s approach to the chief’s job. “There is this idea that people have that I think was very common in the first administration,” he told me, “that their objective was to control the president or influence the president, or even manipulate the president because they had to in order to serve the national interest. Susie just takes the diametrically opposite viewpoint, which is that she’s a facilitator, that the American people have elected Donald Trump. And her job is to actually facilitate his vision and to make his vision come to life…”
In the West Wing, Wiles is surrounded by young MAGA men. “She is a ‘go to church every Sunday, uses a swear word very, very rarely’ ” person, said James Blair, Wiles’s 36-year-old deputy chief of staff. “She doesn’t raise her voice. But she likes being around junkyard dogs.” Indeed, Wiles has seemed content to let her pit bulls—deputy chiefs of staff Miller, Blair, and Dan Scavino—run loose as she watches.
Whether she knows it or not, Wiles is in favor of destroying the country’s global influence and scientific leadership. She justifies it by echoing bog-standard MAGA mouth-noises one hears in the hinterlands from regular old Trump voters.
They hate the imperfect U.S. institutions that project hard and soft power — and not wholly without justification. But what makes their occasionally understandable discontent cross the line into monstrousness is that they are prepared to toss innumerable babies with the bathwater:
For Trump, Wiles has helped pick a Cabinet of MAGA hard-liners: Pete Hegseth, secretary of war (formerly defense); Kash Patel, FBI director; John Ratcliffe, CIA director; Pam Bondi, attorney general; Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence; and Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security. Wiles calls them “a world-class Cabinet, better than anything I could have conceived of.” Trump’s Cabinet members are either one of the least qualified presidential teams in history or, to hear Wiles tell it, disrupters—the only people with the balls to take on an entrenched deep state.
“People talk about the deep state being at the State Department,” Wiles said. “It’s not. It’s the military-industrial complex.” Hegseth, in her view, is just the guy to take on the powers that be. She referred to Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another world-class disrupter, as “my Bobby” and “quirky Bobby.” In Wiles’s view, RFK Jr.’s shock treatment of HHS is warranted.
Left unspoken is the corollary: Consequences be damned. And that’s what makes their actions monstrous and indefensible and irresponsible.
No doubt their rectitude stems in part from a mindset Trump and Wiles share that is entirely the product of the latter half of the 20th century. Both grew up affluent with terrible fathers during that time. Both apparently forged an enduring outlook of The Way Things Should Be™.
The tragedy is their toxic nostalgia is shared by tens of millions who empowered them to make it so. But like the mindless MAGAs who never venture beyond canned slogans and transgressive thrills, Wiles fails to appreciate the context that made the prosperous-for-some era she (mis)remembers possible.
As she facilitates the Trump regime’s breaking shit is fun and good, actually ethos, Wiles is destroying the country that she probably sincerely believes she loves. And what she is destroying cannot be rebuilt. Unlike Trump, Wiles isn’t stupid, but she’ll probably never understand that.
This makes me almost as cranky as the near-certainty that neither she nor the monsters she serves will ever face consequences for their actions. I wish them all a moment of clarity at the end, even if it’s fleeting.
Open thread.
ETA: LOL!
dmsilev
That would be a remarkably stupid thing to think for anyone who has observed Trump for more than an eye blink. He doesn’t give a shit about “indispensable” minions. The amazing thing, though, is that he keeps attracting minions who do believe that, even as they walk over the twitching corpses of the previous set. So, maybe.
schrodingers_cat
Monsters she serves? She is as monstrous as any of them based on what we know about her.
J. Arthur Crank
It is like Yertle the Turtle, but instead of turtles all of the way down, it is assholes all of the way down.
Hildebrand
One of my parishioners asked if I pray for the President. I told her, ‘I pray that he repent – and then meets the Lord, right quick.’
These people are all depraved monsters, and shoving them off the stage, or them shuffling off this mortal coil, is the only way we begin to heal.
schrodingers_cat
@Hildebrand: Was she a wingnut?
Scout211
As Jackie posted downstairs, Wiles is already crying, “TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT!”
I don’t think she wants to be fired. My read of it is, she’s a braggart who is burnishing her creds and wants to brag about her clever moves and how much power she has. But it all went wrong when the writer actually reported on and quoted her words.
ETA: I see your update now with Wiles’s backpedaling statement.
Ben Cisco
Graveyards and history books are filled to the brim with indispensable men and women.
Wiles seems to be pretty stupid for a supposedly smart person. Kind of a theme for this bunch.
BellaPea
I read the entire article and what a brain-washed moron this woman is–not stupid, but fully immersed in the MAGA bullshit. When asked about the midterms, she snapped “We’re going to win the midterms.” In your dreams, Susie, in your dreams.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: See update with Wiles’ tweet in response to the VF article. I wonder if it was posted before or after the ketchup bottle hit the wall…
kindness
It’s odd. Susie Wiles seems to want to be seen as the being of reason within Trump2.0, but from her depiction here she facilitates the existential crazy of this Administration all the while posing and sipping tea. Yea, no Susie. You are just as complicit in trying to kill our Republic as the rabid cogs she wants to be seen as separate from.
Hildebrand
@schrodingers_cat: She’s one of the few in my congregation. I don’t think my response was what she expected.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: Rates about 7 on the Obsequious Grovel scale.
Nettoyeur
Tsar Nicholas II …in the early 1900s probably the richest man in the world… was similarly determined as he took Russia into the totally idiotic Russo-Japanese war…losing badly to the upstart Japanese….and then the squabble of the interrelated ruling families of Europe over subject peoples and colonies that became the WWI trench war meat grinder. You can almost understand why Lenin and the Bolsheviks put a violent to the Romanov dynasty and adopted a policy of Eating the Rich despite its horrible consequences for everyone. Wiles has gone Nicholas and Alexandra a few better by handpicking not one, but a whole troop of Rasputins as advisors and Cabinet secretaries. The longer this continues, the worse the reckoning is going to be.
schrodingers_cat
@Hildebrand: I didn’t know you were a pastor/priest. That must be difficult to keep composure when dealing with the cray cray.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: Yep. That scale had to be reset for the second term. Mike Pence’s tongue baths sound almost harsh in comparison to Noem thanking Trump for keeping hurricanes at bay.
Shakti
Wait isn’t Olivia Nuzzi an editor at Vanity Fair now? Or rather this is one of the pieces she helped set up before her term expires at the end of this year?
She thinks these profiles are tongue baths and most of those quotes would be perceived favorably by their subjects.
She sees this as getting her due and some shine. We had no idea what this woman looked like prior to this (smiles)…or maybe I haven’t been watching enough tv and she’s always there at Trump’s elbow.
Archive link to complete article:
Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff On Trump’s Second Term (Part 1 of 2)
ETA: Look at this amazing fawn. This helps her trash talk without appearing to trash talk (to Trump) b/c the liberal media is always making them look bad not like their own actions could do so.
Hildebrand
Looking at the Wiles response – do any of these people every feel even a moment of shame when they blurt out their endless, breathless, relentless, fabulist exaggeration?
Oh, I know. They don’t. Good lord these people are so broken.
Another Scott
@BellaPea: Yeah, all of them are in their own bubble of their own making. They think “you just tell them and they believe, they just do” works for everything that matters. It may work, for a while, for campaigning, but governing, and reality, are not the same as campaigning.
Reality always gets a vote.
Eyes on the prizes.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jeffro
you look at that picture and think, man, just think of the good that could be done by just one lillllllll’ old grenade
(or considering RFK Jr is around…maybe an active measles patient at the very least?)
p.a.
The quote,
Updated the quote
WaterGirl
Wiles is right about one thing. They are relentless.
Unfortunately, they are relentless in pursuit of the destruction of our country.
Jeffro
Imagine the stupidity and privilege it would take for a person to hold and/or express either of those thoughts, much less both.
trollhattan
Envisioning one of those meme pics of two big dogs sitting perfectly in the livingroom surrounded by a sea of shredded upholstery stuffing removed from a deflated sofa.
“It was that way when we found it. Maybe the cat? Somebody should investigate.”
schrodingers_cat
@Shakti: Olivia Nazi loves fluffing Nazis.
Geminid
@Ben Cisco:
@BellaPea: I think Wiles has more awareness than she’s being credited for. Wiles may not hold elective office but she is politician nonetheless, and is speaking here as a politician; spinning and distracting and showing the opposite of candor.
The aspect of these stories that strikes me is that they are stories at all. The low profile Wiles has kept up until now served her well, I think. Now she will be more of a target. She already was among many MAGA faithful who view Wiles as the nefarious party operative who helped the Deep State “capture” the populist Trump: “Swamp Granny.”
Hildebrand
@schrodingers_cat: I am lucky in that my congregation, an African American congregation in Detroit, has very few wingnutty types (a couple older ladies, and two dipshit 30-something guys).
My wife, also an ELCA pastor, has two congregations in one of the inner-ring burbs, and she has her hands full on a daily basis – a few too many of the moderately wealthy folks who say they voted for Trump because he is such a good businessman. She has gotten very adept at redirecting their nonsense by reminding them that they are supposed to be following that nice Jesus fella, and the Gospels are pretty clear on what that means. They want to argue, but they realize they don’t really have a leg to stand on. It is a draining challenge, though.
And we both have it so much better than our colleagues who have rural or outer-ring suburban congregations. It is no surprise why clergy have been walking away from pastoral ministry in the mainline protestant denominations at a significant clip these last 10 years. Clergy tend to be more liberal than their congregations, and while that has been the case for a long time, the right-wing radicalization of too many white folks has made the gap into a gulf.
Shakti
@Ben Cisco: I think she believes her combination of knowing how to deal with an “alcoholic’s personality” and being willing to deal with this personality, talk him down, soothe him, enable him, buys her job security..
Because I can’t imagine many people who were raised by narcissistic alcoholic sociopaths and know how to handle them would sign up for a job at #1 pooper scooper to the most powerful one in the world. Most such people go far away and grey rock as much as possible if they can’t.
[Or they’re kind of like this ukrainian blogger who acts like since she found jesus her mom is fine and stops calling her a narcissist. But notice she isn’t going to socialist Canada to take care of her. She leaves that to her sister. ]Trump is an incredibly toxic unpleasant person to deal with even on a casual secondhand basis. I’m sure he gives many people secondhand blood pressure spikes and ground teeth. Or maybe not. I don’t think these fellas want to give up Susie as a buffer such that it is – even in pursuit of their goals. I can’t see a bunch of rampant ego monsters dealing with Trump directly and well.
Baud
lowtechcyclist
@p.a.:
And the Watergate crew were absolute fucking Nobel-level geniuses compared to this crew.
Shakti
@schrodingers_cat: That’s an unpleasant metaphor. But also she and her current fling
ex(es)have subjected us to worse. :/stinger
@Jeffro:
Is Miller giving a maybe half-hidden Nazi gang sign in that photo?
Jackie
@Betty Cracker:
Idle question: Has anyone noticed if the price of ketchup has been affected by so much usage in the WH? I’m sure it falls under the “demand and supply” rationale…
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That’s a net loss then.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud: And private-sector jobs were up by only +52K in October, so it was a shitty month completely aside from the mass of Federal firings taking effect.
XeckyGilchrist
All right, then, Ms. Wiles, fill us in on the missing context and quotes.
rikyrah
So a bunch of mediocre, unqualified YT’s like herself.
trnc
I don’t think that’s quite right. I think they’re getting the consequences they’ve intended for the country, but if you mean the consequence of potentially losing their majority in congress, that makes more sense to me.
lowtechcyclist
“The truth is the Trump White House has already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years.” – Susie Wiles
Maybe so, if you count tearing stuff down as ‘accomplishment.’ It’s way faster and easier to tear shit down than build it up, as what used to be the East Wing of the White House is visible evidence of.
Suzanne
Absolutely no one is asserting that Musk “isn’t his own person”. More that YOUR BOSS shouldn’t have hired this fucken evil clown.
goodmatt
‘out of context’ is the boilerplate response to being called out for a Kinsey gaffe.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Unitary executive except when it’s inconvenient.
Ukai
What a piece of shit. Just an astoundingly hollow person.
trnc
I wonder if she and/or Trump will sue over “out of context.” My guess is that VF’s editing holds up.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Odd FUKN duck, yes. Genius: not even close.
Suzanne
@Baud: Disingenuous, mendacious crap. All of these people hold truth and basic honesty in contempt.
Old School
Obviously, Susie Wiles should sue Vanity Fair for eleventy billion dollars.
Eolirin
@Suzanne: Of course they do. Their world view is centered around dominance not truth. And it’s that way in the broader evangelical culture they come out of or pander to.
catclub
The US media is somewhat aware of the destruction of US influence in science.
I have seen extremely little in US media about the latest Defense Policy that was vomited up by the Trump/ Russia side of the admin. It is really horrible. Even I am one of those people who look at it and am _certain_ it will be repudiated by an incoming admin. But those people (like me but with more influence) are therefore not bothering to broadcast how bad it is.
Basically, Western Europe is enemy territory under this new policy.
If you are watching Ukraine news this is not new to you. I have not checked in on Adam/s Ukraine threads so he may have covered it.
The rest of mainstream media does not appear to have noticed.
Raoul Paste
There has previously been much speculation about Wiles’ motives or personality. She is firmly defined now.
Shakti
Susie Wiles Talks Epstein Files, Pete Hegseth’s War Tactics, Retribution, and More (Part 2 of 2)
Archive link of 2nd part
Moral void mommy for whom Trump can do no wrong. I’m sure she has a parachute set up for herself.
Old Man Shadow
Everyone who votes to throw the “useless eaters” out of the airlock never imagines that they’ll be herded into the airlock one day soon. The human delusion of indispensability and “main character syndrome”.
Princess
The narrative that is out there is the one she wanted out there. The things some feel are revealing or confessional are designed to lull the reader into accepting the lies. The message is all hers. But the fact she felt she needed to come out and do it shows Trump’s weakness.
catclub
Genius at self promotion.
hueyplong
I’m pretty curious to learn all about the proper context for saying Trump has the personality of an alcoholic.
The positive spin on all this would be to analogize to early 1945 Nazis pledging fealty to the Führer while simultaneously attempting to signal a willingness to “cooperate” with the Allies in order to save their own skins.
As for the amazing “accomplishments,” what I see are: (1) a video of people being murdered in international waters; (2) the White House looking like it suffered a missile strike; and (3) a copy of a notification of a health insurance rate increase of a magnitude that people have difficulty grasping other than knowing they can’t pay it.
Princess
@Geminid: I agree with you. She is not stupid — none of them are. But it’s telling she felt she needed to do this personally. — like the message she wanted wasn’t getting out there.
lowtechcyclist
@trnc:
I’m sure she’s demanding, as we type, that VF release the tapes.
And if you believe that, I’ve got
a bridgesome crypto and NFTs I’d like to sell you.schrodingers_cat
@Princess: Agreed I see zero reason to believe this vile person. These people lie as easily as they breathe.
Gin & Tonic
@catclub:
It has been covered repeatedly. I know plenty of B-J readers avoid his threads because they do not like what he has to say, but that is their loss.
montanareddog
@catclub:
The world is going to find out in the decades to come that the officials at sub-Cabinet-level in this administration were absolutely riddled with Russian assets. (The Cabinet-level are a combination of white supremacists, grifters, morons and degenerates but not active traitors)
lowtechcyclist
@Shakti:
He does things that are unconstitutional and things that cost lives. I guess she’s A-OK with that, hence no seminal moment.
I don’t care if she is or isn’t a bitch. That totally doesn’t matter to me. But she damn sure IS an enabler.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gin & Tonic: We don’t have to “like” it.
We need to know it. Acknowledge it.
I read Adam’s threads though I don’t generally comment because really, I got nothing to add, and I am just too enraged to be coherent.
This era has almost made me wish I were a theist of some sort, so I could believe these wretched, monstrous, villains will get their comeuppance eventually, one way or another.
Betty Cracker
@trnc: I don’t think Wiles, Trump, most of the psycho cabinet, etc., consciously set out to destroy U.S. capabilities at home and influence abroad, but that is what they’re doing, whether they understand that or not.
I know some folks believe all or some in the admin are Russian assets who are deliberately sabotaging the country, and I can see the logic there! But I don’t subscribe to that theory.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
I agree with you again.
The truth is….. these are not very bright people, and things are getting out of hand.
Spanky
Way WAY late to the party and I haven’t read the comments, but I have to say that that Susie Wiles disclaimer was absolutely dictated, and is only lacking a THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
Since you’ve raised the subject, I don’t so much avoid his threads as I don’t feel the need for a nightly update on Ukraine. Just like AL’s Covid threads were daily at first, eventually the day-to-day changes weren’t substantial enough to warrant daily threads, and she went to every other day, then twice a week, then once a week.
Similarly with Adam’s threads: the vast majority of the time since the 2023 spring offensive stalled, the situation in Ukraine has been pretty much the same one day as it was the day before, and the day before that. Updates once or twice a week would be worth reading. Nightly? Fuhgeddaboutit. Especially given the length of Adam’s posts.
And once you stop reading the nightly threads because every night is too often, when do you jump back in? Either you check back in kind of at random, or not at all.
WTFGhost
No… trust me, they hate US institutions that say they are wrong, and, it is entirely without any meaningful justification. I’m sorry – “not without justification” is what you say when dealing with sane, ordinary, reasonable people. These are not such people. Sorry, Betty, that was a whiff, but you were *trying* to write of them as if they weren’t complete shameless idiots.
If Wiles thinks there’s not chaos out of the Trump administration, she’s a John Roberts, a willing, deliberate, collaborator with the destruction of America. She thinks once the slavers are back in charge, America will be nasty and evil enough again to be GREAT once again.
Hildebrand
@Betty Cracker: Yep – most of them are just dumb and cruel.
It’s just gravy for Putin that their stupidity and cruelty redounds to his benefit. He must laugh himself to sleep every night at thinking of how these clowns make his life easier even though they aren’t assets.
stinger
@Shakti:
Nobody had to tell senior lecturer in Con Law Barack Obama what was or wasn’t constitutional; nobody had to warn devout believer and chair of Senate foreign relations and judiciary committees Joe Biden when there was a threat to human life.
What she means by “my predecessors” is Trump’s chiefs of staff in his first term: Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney, and Mark Meadows. (She’s served nearly as long as any of them.) What she means by “I don’t have that” is that she doesn’t try to talk him out of anything he wants to do. (Which is why she has lasted so long.)
jonas
@lowtechcyclist: As the late Kevin Drum was fond of pointing out, we need 60-90k jobs a month just to keep up with population growth, so anything less than that is actually a contraction.
stinger
@Gin & Tonic:
When I occasionally forego reading Adam’s posts, it’s because I just can’t take the horror, including the horror of the US failing to support Ukraine.
jonas
Thank you, SCOTUS. The difference now is that the president can’t be held accountable for anything, so you don’t need to tell him no ever.
different-church-lady
Little by little, people and institutions are losing their fear of these creeps.
WTFGhost
@Suzanne: I’m curious: is there any evidence that Musk is a genius, and not, say, manic, or a druggie, or just some useless rich git, like Trump?
BellaPea
@Geminid: She also strikes me as a true believer. She has been around Republican politics for a long time, and I think she has just completely swallowed the whole MAGA thing with Trump. So to speak…
schrodingers_cat
@Hildebrand:
They are not just dumb and cruel, they have a worldview and they would like to institutionalize it. But before they do that they have to destroy the institutions that stand in their way and that’s what they are doing.
The world view is based on white supremacy from the age of imperialism and colonial conquest of non-European lands and people. Fascism was the 20th century manifestation of that urge. By the two countries that didn’t have large colonial assets.
After the end of the second world war, the countries of western Europe and the US realized that they needed to soften the edges and become more inclusive, the current admin is at odds with that thinking.
They want to go back to the 19th century, in the American context before the Civil War, before the suffragette movement and definitely before the Civil Rights movement.
That they are too stupid and don’t know what they are doing is a generous read of their agenda.
They are stupid and they also have an agenda that is cruel and steeped in white supremacy.
jowriter
@Princess: This. The curtain that conceals the ugly truth is disintegrating. She’s trying to get out in front of it. That’s what consultants do, the knaves.
Ramona
@schrodingers_cat: Bingo! Spot on and succinct summary of these sickos!
Betty Cracker
@catclub: I’ve only seen a couple of MSM articles about the defense policy document (Atlantic & NYT, IIRC). You’re right to note that it’s not getting nearly enough attention.
Paul in KY
@Nettoyeur: I think Rasputin was actually a cut or two above most of them.
Bupalos
Trump and Wiles wanted this out there and wanted it out there in this form. Her histrionic enemy of the people jibe notably doesn’t claim misquote or deception, but essentially just says “you didn’t use everything we gave you.” The enmity is feigned. This is a cooperating journalist. The supposed criticisms of the players here are much closer to humblebrags on them, for every scandalous little phrase like “alcoholic’s personality” there are 2 paragraphs explaining that this means that person believes there’s nothing they cannot do, doesn’t rely on anyone else, and embodies the will of the Nation.
It is an EXTREME misread to take this as Suzie running wild, being conflicted… or anything other than what Betty cites there at the start: “granting access.” Perhaps there’s a little positioning for the next right wing authoritarian considering that this one’s days are most definitely numbered. But it doesn’t stop her from giving the most deeply fascistic kind of philosophizing behind what she does: facilitating the Will of Trump which is equated with the Will of the Nation and existing beyond considerations of law and morality.
I can’t even believe people think she would get fired for this. This is manipulation of the media with an eye to the attention economy. It’s an administration initiative. And it’s a fascist screed.
Ramona
Note though that Wiles indicates an awareness that a substantial number of Trump voters are not Republican and that she is worried that post Trump the GOP will not hold on to these voters which are essential to the survival of the party.
schrodingers_cat
@Ramona: Thanks. She is the poster child of ww who have signed on to the agenda that others anyone who is not a wealthy white man. She is doing it with her eyes open. No one is making her do this.
Suzanne
@WTFGhost:
Absolutely none that I’ve seen. I mean, how does one even define the term? Top 1% of IQ? I have no issue believing that he’s of above-average intelligence. But I also…. don’t care. He’s destructive and he behaves in a fashion that is bad for society. So: fuck that guy.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I believe they do know what they’re doing. I don’t give them any slack for ‘ignorance’.
They are phucking evil. Deliberately so.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Agreed GMTA. See my comment #75 above.
rikyrah
@stinger:
THIS THIS THIS
To be so obviously on the wrong side is just painful for me, as an American.
And, knowing this was how it was going to be ever since November 5, 2024. I knew that Ukraine was going to be hurt by Kamala Harris not winning.
jowriter
@rikyrah: With you all the way on this analysis.
Paul in KY
@Hildebrand: Your congregation is lucky to have you!
p.a
@Hildebrand: Yep. I’ve noted before Putin’s “genius”, i.e. his noting the obvious, was the way to subvert the US wasn’t the USSR’s attempt to enroll the victims of US society; minorities who were too weak to effect pro-Soviet change, and who, almost unbelievably, mostly believed the pretty words of the Declaration & Constitution, but to coopt the modern conservatives: bigots and oligarchs who are burning down the country because there’s been some slight movement away from them controlling 99.5% of resources & wealth.
Paul in KY
@Shakti: He’s like if Monty Burns turned up the asshole meter to 13.
Betty Cracker
@WTFGhost: The institutional U.S. government has stomped around the world stage like a 900-pound gorilla for the entirety of my life and my parents’ lives. There’s plenty to dislike about what they’ve done under good presidents and bad, along with many truly laudable accomplishments.
The bad shit is what I was referring to when I called these institutions “imperfect” and said there’s reasonable grounds to criticize them. What is NOT justified is to burn them to the fucking ground. That’s what Trump & Co. are doing.
Eunicecycle
She is evil. Just as evil as the rest.
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
 
And there is a LOT of logic there. For instance, how would they act any differently if they were known Russian assets? Less blatantly pro-Russia?
jonas
Another big takeaway from this story that Josh Marshall has flagged is that Wiles says the quiet part out loud about DOJ prosecutions of Trump’s enemies being just outright retribution. Christmas just came early for a lot of defense attorneys.
oldgold
@jonas: Bingo!
Geminid
@BellaPea: My take is that Wiles is first and foremost a Republican, and Trump is more a means to an end; that end being Republican party power. Wiles ran Trump’s Florida campaigns in 2016 and 2020, but I think she have gladly run another nominee’s campaign; Trump just happened to be her party strongest candidate.
Wiles’ professional interests are also at play. Wiles has built her career as a political operative and then a manager; more technocrat than ideologue. Her greatest professional success came late in life, when she teamed up with Chris LaCivita to run Trump’s successful 2024 campaign.
Wiles could have could have retired then, or returned to her lobbying partnership at Mercury Associates. But I think the lure of White House power was irresistable. Also, she wants Trump to succeed because the alternative is a fractured and demoralized Republican party. It’s a very high-stakes challenge for Wiles and her party.
Captain C
As I wrote in the morning thread:
If she actually believes any of this, she’s on crack.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I think at least one of them is a Russian asset. Whether the dipshit realizes it or not.
WhatsMyNym
@Betty Cracker:
I agree BC, they’re just too stupid to know what they are doing. That picture looks like the photographer just said ‘now give me your serious look’ to a group of newbie actors.
Josie
A household that contains an alcoholic–either drunk or dry–contains a certain amount of chaos. Many children of alcoholics who don’t get therapy or who don’t attend alanon, tend to recreate that chaos in their own lives, sometimes by marrying an alcoholic. This woman has chosen to work for one and to help him create the chaos. If you look at her photos, you can see that she is not a happy person. Look at the downturn of her mouth, in every photo.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: That appears to be their dream.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I’ve seen evil people experience the unintended consequences of their actions fairly often. The fact that they didn’t explicitly set out to achieve some negative consequence doesn’t exonerate them for their actions, IMO.
Captain C
@catclub:
I suspect they also don’t care, in part because the Ukrainians don’t throw cocktail parties where they can practice easy access journalism and pretend they’re cool kids.
laura
@stinger: The feeling of deep shame, the absolute memory holing of our sworn commitment to defend Ukraine in exchange for denuclearization. I can’t read Adams posts often because I cannot handle the emotional load, the sorrow, the betrayal and the knowledge that Putin has so poisoned our country root and branch, and his assistant regional manager is doing his level best to dismantle our government as fast as he can. It guts me.
Captain C
@lowtechcyclist:
The complete tapes will probably make her look even worse. Then she can try to sue them for libeling her by using her own exact words.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I think you’re right, and there are quotes in the interview that illustrate that priority, e.g., when she talks about converting MAGA voters who were drawn in by the nutty conspiracy theories (Epstein, vaccines, etc.) into long-term Republican voters. I hope and believe that ultimately Wiles and other institutional Repubs will fail to square that circle. I just hope there’s enough of a functional country left to save when their course is done.
Captain C
@Betty Cracker:
I suspect some of them were put there because their normal mode of being and action would serve to sabotage the country, even without directions. Thus, assets.
Hildebrand
@schrodingers_cat: Yep, exactly right. The foundation of their cruelty (and stupidity) is their bigotry.
Geminid
@Josie: There was a long article in Politico Magazine about Wiles published May of 2024. I think the title was, “The Most Feared Political Operative No One Has Heard Of.”
Author Kevin Kruse had a lot of biographical material on Wiles, especialy concerning her relationship with her father, who was the well-known sportscaster Pat Summeral. Summeral was a high-functioning alcoholic who provided his family material comfort but neglected them otherwise.
Wiles gave Kruse an interview for the piece, but he elicited very little of substance. It was a cagy performance on her part.
mrmoshpotato
Ok, now ask Susie what’s her opinion on racist, sociopathic assholes.
gvg
@schrodingers_cat: It’s also steeped in not knowing how things work, cause and effect and incremental building. The population as a whole has lost track of basic experience with how things work. I think it comes down to how complicated our lives are and how many different kinds of experts and subject impact our lives. In order to function you learn to just accept that certain things “work” a certain way, and it involves which buttons to push, not how electricty works or computer operating systems or even how businesses make profits.
So a bunch of people voted for more and more easy lies until they got Trump. Before that they caused the republican party to become corrupt because they wouldn’t elect the more realistic candiates. They caused the media to become shallow (at least partly).
I think they are finding out, because reality always gets a say. Trump is doing a lot of what he signalled he would and they thought they wanted. That says they son’t care that much for other people, sure, but they are getting it good and hard and it’s too much,plus it is costing too much. They really did not know tarriffs and protectionism hurt jobs and income. they didn’t know (didn’t want to accept facts) that healthcare is more expensive and less effective when not enforced by the government, plus lots of other details. They just thought it would all be great. As if all the other politicians failed to deliver these easy things because they were mean, not because….it isn’t easy or even possible. Doing these MAGA things does not result in great economy and a powerful country, it results in a disaster. We are lucky it’s not worse already.
People are looking at what happens when you do A you get B and a lot of them are learning not to want A done. Earlier smarter politicians never did this stupid shit since Hoover, and people forgot the lesson. Maybe when it’s over we need to bury a bunch of 3 generation time capsules to warn our descendants again the next time stupidity is due.
Dave
@WTFGhost: I’ve talked to people who encountered him second hand and he may have been able to be called a genius at systems analysis trends and how to exploit them at one time but even if true not in a way that did much more than materially benefits him and harm others (this is my take on their words they still had star in their eyes on the Silicon Valley tendency to dismiss harm to the masses and value “disruption” for its own sakes).
Even if we accept that was once true it has pretty clearly been swamped by the self soothing but harmful bubble he has ensconced himself in (something that even self aware conscientious wealthy and powerful people can fall into and Elmo is not that) though it does seem that he’s rigged things where to many have a stake in him not failing. And whatever genius he may possess or have possess seems to be limited in where it’s useful or not.
Obviously my two cents take it for what it’s worth. Wisdom and decency aren’t the same as raw brain power.
Dave
@schrodingers_cat: They want this but are stupid for wanting it. Even if you ignore morality the simple reality is you can never go back and pretending you can is a form of stupidity.
schrodingers_cat
@gvg: That’s astute. Similar problem exists on the tankie left side of the political divide as well. The promise of easy answers to complicated questions. Sloganeering over real problem solving sounds attractive to people who don’t know how things work.
hueyplong
@Geminid: “… well-known sportscaster Pat Summerall… was a high-functioning alcoholic who provided his family material comfort but neglected them otherwise.”
Mildly humorous in retrospect that, before being paired with John Madden, Summerall was considered the less alcoholic member of the Summerall-Brookshire announcing team that did top games for CBS.
mrmoshpotato
This is a kick in the face to the actual canines – especially my sister’s who’s always been a lovable, gentle lady.
JustRuss
@WhatsMyNym: JFC, when JD Vance is the most normal-looking person in your group….
schrodingers_cat
@Dave: It is and they will ultimately fail but giving them power has hurt a lot of people.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
OK, but generally when reasonably intelligent people side with one party or the other, there are reasons why they favor one party over the other.
Whatever her reasons were for being a Republican a dozen years ago, let alone earlier in her life, it doesn’t seem to me like much in the way of those reasons could have survived as the GOP has dropped any attachment to small government, individual liberty, a strong U.S. role in the world, and the like, while holding onto lower taxes for billionaires and few restraints on big business, and going from dog-whistle racism to blatant racism, and adding in a huge helping of misogyny to boot. And now of course, it’s a party totally loyal to an Executive branch that is astoundingly inept to say the least. (Good thing for them it’s way easier to tear down than build up.)
It seems to leave her as a person who wants Republicans in power because she wants Republicans in power, just because. I don’t know what else is left.
hueyplong
@mrmoshpotato: “Ok, now ask Susie what’s her opinion on racist, sociopathic assholes.”
I think she calls them “geniuses.”
Paul in KY
@hueyplong: I actually liked Summerall when he was announcing. He knew when to shut up.
hueyplong
@Paul in KY: I liked him, too. Alcohol was apparently a problem everywhere but in the broadcast booth, or else simply provided a limit on the yammering many other play-by-play guys can’t resist.
Betty Cracker
@gvg: Great comment!
WTFGhost
Most people who participated in the holocaust didn’t consciously set out to be participants in the most evil machinery ever imagined, either, but, they did, and so, too, did this crew, and this crew knew in advance that they were – and remain – as evil as a man who murders people without a second thought.
“Seriously, Ms. Wiles, I only ask for the record, what on earth did you think history would say of you, after ‘your’ President started murdering people on the high seas? Did you truly think we’d all come over to your diseased perceptions?”
CCL
My first take was that Rubio is portrayed as “moral” to use Wiles’ words… and Vance is hypocritical, conniving and untrustworthy. Wiles is a Florida gal – is she sowing seeds to upturn Vance – with Rubio a “respectable” alternative?
Josie
@CCL:
Interesting theory. I would be concerned about anyone’s outlook who described Rubio as moral.
mrmoshpotato
This woman is delusional. God help us.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: MICE: Money, Ideology, Coercion/Compromise, Ego.
The four classic motivations for espionage. Other than ideology, I see plenty of evidence throughout the cabinet of/for the other three for being captured by Putin
ETA and the ideology is their own homegrown variety, of course.
Ben Cisco
@Geminid: @Shakti: Under the circumstances you lay out, I’m more concerned with her sanity now than I was before reading the article.
Betty Cracker
@CCL: I noticed the Rubio fluffing too. I remember when lots of Republicans (and MSM media outlets) thought Rubio was the future of the party. Maybe Wiles still thinks that.
CCL
@Josie: I misquoted. Here’s the actual graph from the article:
Still made me wonder – Rubio does come off better in the article than others.
lowtechcyclist
@CCL:
Good Lord. Rubio’s revealed himself this year to be far more amoral than can be explained by his mere spinelessness.
Alternative for what, the 2028 nomination? Good luck with that, Susie: Rubio’s a decade past his sell-by date. I don’t know who the GOP will nominate, but it won’t be L’il Marco.
CCL
@Betty Cracker: yes, that sort of jumped out at me… I kept thinking the entire time reading… Why would this woman talk to the press?
CCL
@lowtechcyclist: yah, I agree, but I do wonder what Wiles was thinking to talk to the press over so many months?!?!
catclub
@Captain C:
 
It works for Trump.
Ben Cisco
@Geminid:
This applies to Wiles AND ALL THE REST OF THEM. Only those who either left or got jettisoned from the partei are due any consideration, and even then only to the degree to which they have repudiated their actions.
Glory b
@WTFGhost: Tthanks, you said it better than I did.
There is NO JUSTIFICATION, sorry (not sorry).
rusty
@Hildebrand: Thank you for your candor and insight on being clergy from a theologically liberal denomination at this moment in time. I was a very active member of an ELCA congregation for 20+ years, but a relocation to find a job brought me back to the UCC roots. I am now in seminary and a member in discernment with my home state UCC conference. The gap between clergy and congregations really is a gulf. Ryan Burge, a (sociology?) professor does a lot of statistical analysis of religion in America. A few weeks ago he had a post on the political affiliation of mainline clergy compared to their congregations. The UCC was the most extreme, 71% of clergy are Democrats, 3% Republican, but roughly half of congregants voted for Trump. My best recollection is the ELCA clergy were a strong Democratic majority, and by a small majority congregants voted for Trump. I am going to seminary late in life, I turn 60 this month, and going at night while working full time. I am a third done, it will be another three years for me to get done and then there is the ordination process. I am at a UCC affiliated seminary, but the numbers of us there, and in the discernment process of my conference, are tiny compared to the openings and expected retirements. It is hard to see what the future looks like at this moment.
WTFGhost
@Betty Cracker: Yes, friend. I agree with you. But it was like, “no, these people, they hate these institutions because they said ‘no war for you!’ but we hate them because they said ‘no peace for you!’ They don’t deserve acknowledgment of their anger!”
@Dave: Yeah, he’s bold and audacious, which are both good things, and they are probably why Trump loves him to pieces. I think the time I realized the shine (if any, for me) had worn off was the rescue mission, where he insisted his solution would work, when the people on the ground said “it won’t help.” I could see from the diagram they posted that it wouldn’t help, and he seemed scornful that they refused his help.
I sometimes wonder if I miss obvious signs of intelligence in people, because I’m fogged out so often, and – I can’t help it if this sounds arrogant, but – I’m smart enough that I might not have my mind blown by ordinary smarts, you see? And I know I’m scornful of people who miss important sinkholes in reality. I want to be right, but I know I can be wrong. I also know that I might be right, but not yet falsifiably be right. Being right isn’t meaningful until you can quantify it. And even then, there are always random factors that can hide the truth from us. I figure these are all part of “intelligence” and you might be extremely talented, but not a genius, if you can’t master these (at least for things that have objective answers).
I didn’t think I’d missed any signs that Musk was “extremely talented” but I figured I’d check. :-)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jeffro:
Right? Imagine thinking Hegseth, the guy who wants to rename the Defense Department, the “War Department” and himself the the “Secretary of War” or has aggressively bombed small boats in the Carribean, is going to “take on” the military-industrial complex.
Does she think the MIC, especially the “industrial” part, is going to be opposed to a warhawk?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@hueyplong:
Summerall was one of the best as was noted by practically everybody when he died in 2013.
His alcoholism was replaced by religion (born again) after his friends and family intervened in 1992 and sent him to Betty Ford.
His noxious daughter is the product of his first marriage. After he sobered up, he divorced her and remarried.
JustSomeGuy
@Suzanne: I have seen nothing that indicates that musk has above average intelligence. All I have seen is that he he exhibits above average cunning. The two don’t have to have anything to do with each other. He makes a good con artist not a good scientist or inventor.
Captain C
@catclub: Only because people willingly fold, whether from cowardice or because it’s an excuse to do what they wanted to do anyway.
Captain C
@WTFGhost:
Wiles: “The real problem is you for being mean! Pointing out my moral turpitude is way worse than the actual things I do that make me a textbook case of moral turpitude!”
Hildebrand
@rusty: Good luck in your studies, it’s a leap of faith to join the church in this moment, but I can’t help but feel the church has got an opportunity to really get back to the business of doing what it was called to do so very long ago.
We are in a reversion to the mean when it comes to the church – the 20th century American attendance and participation was an aberration. A lot of folks who had been in the pews were there for reasons other than following the nice young chap from Nazareth. This isn’t a knock, it’s just that American Christianity, especially white American Christianity, was far too wrapped up in patriotic respectability – you went to church because that was what was expected of respectable folks, and likely as not your boss went and you wanted to be seen there. My wife previously served a congregation in a big corporate town – said corporation had a requirement that their employees have some kind of civic engagement, church counted, so the congregation was filled with a bunch of folks who were there for less than faith-based reasons. Now that that ‘civic religion’ has mostly disappeared, lots of folks headed for the exits. That exodus was enhanced because so many churches did abominable things and people just couldn’t stomach hanging around such grotesques.
So, the church finds itself in a place that they haven’t been for awhile, but it may wind up being a good thing, because it’s made us have to really seriously examine why we do what we do. If this brings us back to living out what Jesus actually embodied and taught, well, that’s a good thing – for everyone.
Captain C
Shorter Wiles: “I’m totally fine with wrecking the Constitution and murdering lots of people in cold blood (provided it’s Those People).
MoCaAce
@Hildebrand:
My canned response is “I pray that he finds God soon. In this life or the next, I don’t really care.”
Ruckus
@Princess:
Not stupid?
Stupid can take on many forms. It sometimes doesn’t even look stupid. But. And it’s a big/huge round but. Just because someone can speak in what sounds like actual, learned, rational speech, that doesn’t mean that words they form and what that form actually states aren’t the most ignorant and asinine humans possible. This is a country with a government by, for and about the citizens. All the citizens, not just the wealthy, not just one color of skin, not just one gender, not just one life, not just one life style, not just one concept of sex, not just one dimension… It is all of us in all our glory and all our not even close to glory. It’s not one and only one life, the king or queen, it’s all of us, the good, the not so good, the intelligent, the not even close, the workers – physical and mental, the all of us, not just the conservatives/not just the liberals/not just the don’t knows, it’s all of us. But to be that there has to be, not just one way but multiple ways that don’t harm the others. It’s not a monarchy, with one voice, it’s not a dictatorship with one voice of hate of others, it’s a democracy, where we all get to live – as long as we aren’t harming those we just don’t agree with. Sure there are rules, levels, differences, sure there are limits (there have to be!) it is a democracy and a democracy is not an item to sell or destroy for a big bank account or one person or one life style.
Omnes Omnibus
“I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it is my job to facilitate it.” Sorry, that doesn’t wash.
Aziz, light!
@rikyrah: Adam’s well-established point is that Ukraine was profoundly hurt by Biden not allowing them to take the war to Russia, setting the stage for many more Ukrainian lives to be lost.
Shalimar
@CCL: I haven’t followed Twitter in forever so I don’t know if he still does this, but Rubio used to post Bible verses all the time. I think moral is exactly the image he wanted, so Wiles is just reinforcing his chosen branding.
Aziz, light!
In a just world the current White House team would be hanging by their heels from the lampposts on the National Mall as a warning to future leaders.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Wiles took her first political job when she graduated from the University of Maryland in 1979. That was in the office of Rep. Jack Kemp, who had been her father’s NFL teammate.
The following year Wiles hired on with Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign. She stayed in Reagan’s orbit through the 1984 campaign and beyond, developing a reputation for efficiency. Then when Rsagan retired in early 1989, Wiles managed his post-White Hpuse office as chief staff.
Wiles’ biggest successes before 2024 were managing Rick Scott’s first two campaigns for Florida governor. Scott was a poltical unknown before he hired Wiles to steer him to his party nomination and narrow victory in November of 2010. He won again by a similarly narrow margin in 2014.
Wiles worked for Ron DeSantis for a while after that but they fell out, leaving bad blood between them. By then, Wiles probably knew DeSantis better than he knew himself. She was able to deftly sandbag DeSantis’s 2024 presidential campaign even before he sandbagged it himself.
I think Wile’ principles have remained the same throughout her profession life though, despite the devolution of her party. That’s because her principles revolve around power, for her party and for herself.
Lyrebird
Yep. And I’m pretty sure that even before the full-on campaign, Biden’s admin was toning down their stated support for Ukraine and trying to get the most help through they could w/o losing more votes to the “Trump for Peace” useful idiots. I don’t usually see much outright conspiracy stuff, don’t use social media much, but I saw the “Biden will send your kids to Ukraine” stuff going around.
May evil be thwarted a bit more, and a little more good prosper, please FSM???
Scout211
Vanity Fair Reporter Brings The Receipts To Fact Check Susie Wiles’ Claims
mrmoshpotato
@Aziz, light!: In a just world, the first impeachment would’ve been followed by conviction by the Senate, and removal from and being barred for holding federal office for the rest of Dump’s traitorous manbaby life.
Raoul Paste
@Scout211: That is so good. And I hope that this irrefutable proof that Wiles is a brazen liar gets wide airplay.
Scout211
Moment Trump Goons Realized Vanity Fair Shoot Was Career Suicide
. . .
Captain C
@Scout211: Wasn’t sure if this was news or Borowitz, initially.
Professor Bigfoot
@schrodingers_cat: There’s ALWAYS a tendency to try to give these villains “the benefit of the doubt.”
Smart, capable people who refuse to accept the Occam’s Razor explanation— from “we get our financing from Russia” to “The US plan for Ukraine was written in Russia” to “America Declares Western Europe a hostile location.”
A lot of people cannot see how Russia has used American white supremacy to accomplish the greatest coup in the history Russian intelligence services.
OF COURSE, I could be wrong about this— but both William of Ockham and Ian Fleming are telling me I’m not.
mrmoshpotato
@hueyplong: LOL! Touché!
Paul in KY
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): For them, every million dollar missile you use to murder people is profit, baby!!!
glc
Wiles is a professional with a long history. I assume she knows what she is doing. I don’t.
But Trump is declining rapidly and has boasted openly about the fact that he doesn’t have to listen to Susan Wiles any more or look at the “stupid” teleprompter.
It sounds like she got some shots in at people who have in any case been trying to sideline her, and may have added a touch to her post-Trump c.v.
If we still have political parties after his departure or removal on medical grounds, I think she’ll do vey well. Otherwise she may have to sell gold or alternative medicine but I suspect she’d be good at that. Or the high-end stuff, cryptocurrency or LLMs. Actually, Zuckerberg should hire her but I doubt he’s smart enough to realize that.
If in the end they hang Trump upside down maybe they should consider letting his consigliera keep him company. But that’s out in the long tail of the distribution.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: “I didn’t really agree with the Fuhrer exterminating all the Jews, but it was my job to facilitate it…”
More or less the same.
Paul in KY
@Aziz, light!: And also not using everything in his arsenal (inside the box or outside the box) to take down TACO.
Suzanne
@Scout211:
Is it too much to hope that the two of these human herpes get in a bloody fistfight and it ends with both of them eating all of their meals for the rest of their lives through a straw?
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Late to this, but it strikes me that what we see has a public-sector equivalent of vulture capitalism feel to it. Very much a break-it-up, saddle-the-core-with-unmanageable-debt, sell-off-the-valuable-bits and trash-the-rest sense.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Professor Bigfoot: Nailed it.
It is fascinating how, in hindsight, the Soviets were (despite all their skullduggery) so Pollyanna-ish about the Western Left. Conversely, post-Soviet Russia (Putin especially but hardly alone) seems to have grasped how subverting the Western Right would be (and has been) so much easier and more effective.
Omnes Omnibus
@Paul in KY: That’s exactly how I read her. Eichmann, not Streicher.
cmorenc
@lowtechcyclist:
And a 3 year-old can make more mess in eleven minutes than his mom, even with the assistance of paid cleaning help, can straighten out in eight hours.
Geminid
@glc: Wiles can always go back to K Street and work as a lobbyist. Wiles was a partner in the Mercury lobby shop before she hired on with Trump in Spring of 2021, and she may still be.
And Wiles can write a book. She has plenty of material for one.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
From all I’ve read and seen, shitforbrains really has, as you effectively state, never given one anything for anyone else on the planet. He seemingly believes that he is the top of the top of humanity.
Shakti
@Ben Cisco: Nah. She’s a classic golden child of a dysfunctional parent, not a scapegoat or a forgotten one. She’s also the oldest daughter.
She’s perfectly sane. Her moral compass is obviously non existent.
I note she calls herself Episcopalian, she went to Catholic school and her father found Jesus via Graham after his family staged an intervention to save him from dying of alcoholism so he could later get a transplant liver.
And we can see how that faith background shaped these results.
I can’t help but think Summerall and his first wife (and his second wife) must be much worse than acknowledged.
Soprano2
@Scout211: I hope the reporter has recordings of all the conversations.
Professor Bigfoot
@Hildebrand: Let us hope.
But this hits a little too hard. ;^)
That business looks a lot like a grift.
glc
@Geminid: I might even read it, I suppose.
The Republic of Stupidity
Russell Vought, architect of the notorious Project 2025 and head of the Office of Management and Budget, is “a right-wing absolute ZEALOT.”
I must say, I agree with this statement completely… but I think the word ‘zealot’ is misspelled…
The correct spelling is ‘asshole’…
As in ‘Vought is a right-wing absolute ASSHOLE‘…
There… now, that’s the right spelling!
catclub
@MoCaAce:
“A prayer for the Czar?”
“May the Lord bless and keep the Czar… far away from us.”
catclub
@Ruckus:
I was enlightened by the person who said that most of trump’s behavior is explained as how he resists learning anything from anyone other than himself. [He talks all the time. he refuses to read….]
The interesting part of this is figuring out how some information actually gets in.
Shakti
@Betty Cracker: On one hand, attributing conscious design to everything makes them look too evil and clever by half.
On the other hand, it’s not possible that they are this stupid about foreseeable consequences and things like cause and effect and yet still breathe air and operate motor vehicles.
We’re at cartoon levels that make Wile E Coyote a master of long term memory and physics now.
If it were simply a matter of stupidity without intent, being shown evidence would get them to stop. Or they would be horrified at the result. I see no such evidence of this happening. This is malice whether in service of their own ego or power or as some other country’s asset.
People who are actively trying to save this country are not getting steamrolled by people this stupid. People who passively and tacitly like some of these results will play oh I’m so helpless and let the “stupid” roll them.
AMagicianNamedGob
@Shakti: Follow up question for Ms. Wiles…speaking of “seminal” moments…what about Epstein and Trumps relationship?
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Hildebrand: All the time. Psalm 109.
Professor Bigfoot
I think that’s a function of the fact that they have faced NO real sanction so far.
They’re probing with bayonets and only finding oatmeal… or so they think.
(I think the “steel” is behind them, and slowly catching up)
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not really sure she suggests she doesn’t agree with any of it. Agreement or disagreement is irrelevant. It is the will of the fuhrer and that’s what she’s there to implement.
This entire performance is very explicitly and shockingly fascist. Of all the things getting attention, the last bit isn’t getting much, and it’s kind of the most shocking. Where she says all her predecessors told her she’d have uncomfortable moments where she had to tell Trump he couldn’t do something because it was illegal. And she says that was wrong, that she doesn’t do that. It’s possible to read that as “because I don’t have to because he doesn’t want to do illegal things” I guess. Technically. But that emphatically isn’t what she’s saying, and she set up the philosophy earlier in the interview: Trump embodies the spirit and will of the Nation. That supersedes law. She doesn’t tell Trump he can’t do things because they are illegal, because it’s not possible for the fuhrer to break the law.
Shakti
Trump is/was Susie’s rebound job.
She joined Trump’s campaign in 2017 after being bounced out by DeSantis and divorcing her much older (14 years older) husband. Earlier in the marriage he had run up credit card bills earlier in the marriage , (at one point her wages were garnished) resulting in a chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Scout211
Trump defends Wiles:
These defenses of her are getting stranger and stranger. But she does know all of their secrets, so it I guess itmakes sense.
Geminid
@Shakti: I think this sequence is wrong. Wiles was Trump’s Florida director in both 2016 and 2020. I think she worked for DeSantis’s 2018 campaign for governor and got bounced in 2020, in part because Mrs. DeSantis did not like her.
Shakti
@Scout211: In profiles of Wiles:
Princess
@Scout211: I knew Trump would like the alcoholic parallel. It’s part of his definitional narrative about himself — that’s he’s better than his brother.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos: I wonder why I chose to type the word necessarily in that comment.
And of course is is fascistic as fuck. She’s another fascist. It’s just that they come in different flavors.
Ramona
@Scout211: This is delicious! A thousand and one thanks!
Now, which official said that? I doubt it was WIles or Miller.
Vance shouldn’t get too comfortable. There is a minuscule chance he gets impeached and convicted! Heck, Trump might be tempted to insist on that.
Hildebrand
@Professor Bigfoot: That’s bang on.
Ramona
@Scout211: I love the way the writer of this piece you included described Leavitt as having “Live, Laugh, Lie” energy!
archive.ph/o/z3a0V/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/vanity-fair-goes-to-the-white-house-trump-2…
Omnes Omnibus
@Professor Bigfoot: Aren’t Greece and Rome in Europe?
Ramona
@Professor Bigfoot: I congratulate you on your insight that Ian Fleming’s fiction indicates that Russian white supremacists would find common cause with American white supremacists!
Ramona
@Omnes Omnibus: Leavitt might be Streicher…
Omnes Omnibus
@Ramona: I thought it was the “three times is enemy action”.
Hildebrand
@Omnes Omnibus: Historians of antiquity and the Early Medieval period definitely see a difference between the Mediterranean world and Europe.
Ramona
@Omnes Omnibus: Indeed, you are right! Goldfinger…
I am wrong about Ian Fleming but the ever witty Prof BF is not!
Omnes Omnibus
@Hildebrand: Yes, but that takes away the chance to give shit to the Prof.
MisterForkbeard
@Scout211: Oh look, Trump admin members lie constantly.
Maybe they should note at the top that Wiles lied when she denied it.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: If DeSatanis doesn’t like you, it’s probably a plus of some sort.
YY_Sima Qian
Heh:
Career ending in normal times, but Trump probably won’t fire Wiles as Obama did McChrystal.
Not sure what the Trump gang, & Wiles specifically, was hoping to accomplish by talking to the Vanity Fair.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: It might be Fair to say that Susan Wiles was indulging her Vanity.