Inside the new regime: Source says Team Trump is growing "disillusioned"

It is time to stop examining the chaos and time to do something about it.

I have a source inside the Trump regime who feels, in their own words, “a little disillusioned.” This person says they signed on to the Trump team because of “DEI going too far” and because “woke culture was dividing the country,” but is now concerned about the “blatant criminal behavior” of Donald Trump. Really? His last administration didn’t show you that? Well, OK.

This source first approached me by saying, “I can provide you bonafides to show you I’m serious.” That impressed me because I didn’t think many people inside the Trump regime knew what bonafides were, let alone how to be serious.

This source’s concerns about Trump are indeed legitimate, and deserve to be heard. “Not all of us are buying everything he says,” this person told me. “We understand the problem, but we see no solution. You guys in the press, with very few exceptions, are not trustworthy. Congress can’t be trusted and the judiciary so far hasn’t been able to stop him.”

So what about the Democrats, I asked? “They hate us and won’t accept us. And if they don’t change their attitude, Trump and MAGA will keep winning.”

That was echoed by former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, who regularly speaks out about this. “If there’s not room for center-right former Republicans in today’s Democratic Party, then today’s Republican Party will remain victorious and our democracy will disappear,” Walsh told me.

To the point about the many failures of so-called reporting on Trump, this week we in the press continue to concentrate on the laughable comic-book aspects of his presidency while asking him meaningless questions about largely irrelevant issues. There is very little real reporting on the dire results of his failed policies.

If you want to laugh about a picture of Trump holding a red lightsaber on May 4, or about that AI-generated photo of Trump as the pope, join the millions who think it’s all lowbrow comedy. If you want to laugh about Trump reopening Alcatraz, go for it. I know I did. But there is something we’re missing by simply mocking the tragic and demented character who once again resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump told an ABC News reporter that the Declaration of Independence was a "beautiful" statement of "unity," and that nonsensical description got far less ink and airtime. For the record, the Declaration includes a description of the king of England that Trump should memorize, and perhaps recognize: “A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of free people.”

Trump told another reporter he was unsure if everyone should be provided due process, although the U.S. Constitution explicitly says so. He also said he was unsure whether he was responsible for upholding the Constitution, although the oath of office he swore on Jan. 20 is entirely about that: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

“I don't know. I'm not, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know," Trump told NBC News' Kristen Welker on "Meet the Press" after she asked him whether everyone on U.S. soil is entitled to due process in a court of law. When asked whether he has to uphold the Constitution as president, he again said, "I don't know,” followed by this: "I have to respond by saying again, and I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said."

Some have suggested this was a brilliant maneuver, giving himself some degree of plausible deniability. Others, like his niece Mary Trump, say it is just another indication of his mental decline: “There is no worst with Donald Trump. Every day is just worse than the day before.”

While I tend to agree with Mary on that point, my White House source says we are all missing the point. "You want to know who is influencing him and you want to talk about the destabilizing results of this man in the White House," my source said. "If you want to know who's influencing him, then take a look at who has walk-in privileges in the Oval Office."

So this isn’t just about Trump’s mental decline, “which is a given,” as my source put it. Rather, it’s about who is able to prod him into pushing their own private agenda. Trump is well known to be most influenced by the last person he spoke with, and to have that privilege one must be able to walk into the Oval Office without an appointment. There’s one administration official who recently told reporters he can do this: deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

“He is very good at getting the president’s ear by telling him things Trump wants to hear,” I was told. “And he doesn’t mind waiting — and being the last in the room to talk.”

That's frightening. It implies that Trump has no idea what to do and relies on others for validation of his actions — and since those people have their own agendas, our nation is a rudderless ship.

One prime public example of Trump bowing to Miller came during a recent Oval Office meeting with the press. Trump asked Miller whether the administration had won a case before the Supreme Court — one in which the court ruled 9-0 against the president.

“Miller said we’d won when Trump had lost,” my source explained. “No one pushed back on that, and Trump loves to hear Miller defend him. Trump believes him.”

Most reporters left in the press pool at the White House are not confronting Trump because they are propagandists pretending to be reporters. They are delighted to have access to the president and love to make fun of the remnants of corporate media. With the wire services kicked out of the pool, and the subsequent loss of experience and professional acumen those reporters represent — I especially regret the absence of Jeff Mason and Steve Holland from Reuters — quite a few of the so-called journalists left in the pool are unqualified to do their jobs. Trump, of course, benefits from that.

So, what passes for journalism these days? Here’s an excerpt from a recent report from the travel pool. “Pool has been assembled and our gear has been sniffed for explosives by a very gorgeous girl named Kora. Pool was also scanned with a magnetometer, but this was outside Kora’s area of responsibility as she lacks the opposable thumbs needed to hold that particular instrument.”

Cheesy? Yes. Funny? No. Cute? No. Reporting? Absolutely not.

One recent story about from the Pentagon has taken on a life of its own, posing the question of how bad it will be if Trump arbitrarily reduces the number of military generals by 20 percent, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has decreed. “Trying to achieve these cuts wholesale through a contrived and meaningless quota could deprive the military of significant operational acumen at a dangerous time in our history,” a Pentagon source told me on background. “Why 20 percent? Where did that figure come from? They should be made to explain it and, just as critically, how they aim to achieve it.”

So far, Trump hasn’t done that and reporters are too busy taking their time writing drivel to ask him. They ask where he’s taking Melania to dinner, or how he’s able to shoot rainbows out of his butt day after day. We did, of course, ask how Trump felt about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney telling him that the nation up north is “not for sale.” (One Trump insider called him “Art Carney,” who played Ed Norton the sewer worker on “The Honeymooners” — that’s even before my time.)

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Those most trapped at this moment, I believe, are the handful of people inside the administration — and it may be a growing handful — who haven’t completely followed Trump down his insane rabbit hole of hate, global conquest, greed, crypto-scam, racism, misogyny, voter suppression and delusions about ruling the world. There just isn’t any place for those people to air their grievances and reach out for help, and that almost guarantees that the dissenters will be few in number, and very quiet.

Miller shows up in the briefing room to tell us that schools are teaching communism and claim that teachers are trying to turn five-year-olds transgender and they must be barred from girls’ basketball teams. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells us he doesn’t believe in germ theory but does believe in “chemtrails,” while suggesting that the measles vaccine contains aborted fetuses.

While literally painting the White House gold and spending every weekend at the golf course of his choice, Trump has half-acknowledged that the country may be headed for a recession, complete with empty shelves in shopping centers. We may all have to learn to do with less while he has more — and to drive that point home, he wants to erect a ballroom on the South Lawn of the White House.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk is still slashing federal jobs and putting our national security at risk, while Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio praise the neofascist party in Germany. Those who have Trump’s ear definitely include Musk and Rubio. The former, who was ridiculed as “Liddle Marco” during the 2016 Republican primaries, has become one of the most powerful players in Trump’s Cabinet. Not to mention that he’ll probably have six titles before the end of the week.

Rending of hair and gnashing of teeth may be picking up speed behind the scenes in what’s left of the Republican Party — but right now that anguish has no outlet. Meanwhile, with a compromised press and Trump ignoring any judicial ruling he dislikes, the Democrats are still no help. They’re nearly as crazy as Trump if they think that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be a viable presidential candidate. No matter what they think of her policies, very few Republicans who despise Trump would vote for her. “I wouldn’t,” my White House source told me. “I’m not crazy. The far left is as bad as the far right, and they’re the reason I voted for Trump.” There are plenty of moderate Democrats who agree.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer promises to write another stern letter to Trump.

Those of us who’ve covered this comic-book nonsense before are in lockstep with my disgruntled source inside the White House: We want to get past all the deflections and concentrate on how Trump is destroying the country and how, just maybe, the United States can be reunited. “United we stand. divided we fall” — remember that one?

Someone has got to start talking about “inclusion” instead of division. I believe Joe Walsh nails that point. There are those on the right who would vote for a Democrat after all this trauma, or who might, if they felt like they’d be heard. At the very least, they might be willing to come forward and speak on the record, if they weren’t afraid they’d be prosecuted by Trump and ignored by everyone else.