MAGA’s lust for publicity may be its undoing
The Wiles interviews give us hope that Republicans’ egos are their fatal flaw
Why in the world would Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles sit down for 11 interviews with Vanity Fair? Why would she dish on the president and his key allies the way she did?
Because her ego told her to.
Wiles – known for her backstage maneuvering – decided she needed a share of the limelight. It’s amazing that MAGA politicians keep revealing themselves to mainstream media. Trump did it with Bob Woodward during Covid, admitting that he lied to the American people about a pandemic.
Fascist Republicans are so thrilled with being in the public eye that they end up exposing their own ugliness. And until they succeed in crushing a free press, they’re going to be vulnerable to it, as the Wiles interviews show. Wiles’ insulting comments about her White House colleagues also raised hopes that when Trump leaves the scene, there will be an all-out, mutually destructive battle among the MAGA authoritarians.
May their ambition and their narcissism be their undoing.
I have some other thoughts about Wiles and the interviews:
Susie Wiles is not a “moderate.”
Politico wrote last year that Wiles “in the past described herself as ‘a moderate on the political spectrum.’” But a moderate doesn’t help her boss cover up a child sex-trafficking scandal, terrorize immigrants, and commit war crimes. She may not be much of an idealogue, but in some ways that’s worse. She’s a mob consigliere, a fixer who doesn’t think much about what she’s fixing and whom it harms.
The interview was not “brutally honest.”
Chris Jansing on MS NOW described it that way, but she should get a grip. Wiles routinely helps Trump lie. The interview included Wiles discussing sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer to a nicer prison. “I don’t know why they moved her,” Wiles said. “Neither does the president.” If you believe that, send me $100 and I’ll email you the Brooklyn Bridge.
Lawyers for Trump’s opponents must be thankful.
Wiles provided more evidence that Trump is cooking up federal charges against his perceived enemies for political and personal reasons. “I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution,” Wiles said. “But when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.” Wiles said she was OK with retribution against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a civil case against Trump for business fraud. “She had a half a billion dollars of his money,” Wiles said. (The monetary award was thrown out on appeal.)
The New York Times sane-washes “Susie Trump.”
In Peter Baker’s NYT story about Wiles’ interview, he wrote that Trump “has embraced her so much that he referred to her during a rally last week as ‘Susie Trump.’” Wait a second, Pete. Do you really think that was intentional? Take another look. To me, it looked like a brain cramp by a mentally unfit person that Trump tried to cover up by pretending he said it on purpose.
They were clueless enough to pose for photos.
Vanity Fair got Wiles, JD Vance, Karoline Leavitt, Stephen Miller, and others to pose for group glamour photos. That shows the extent to which Trump’s aides are confident in their cruelty and oblivious to the growing national anger. I have mixed feelings about that. The less they understand public opinion, the less they are able to manipulate it. But the less they care about public opinion, the more damage they will cause.
Whatever awful things they do, Susie Wiles seems perfectly willing to help them do it.
COURIER’s Courage > Cowardice event
I moderated a COURIER panel last week in Washington, D.C., on “News with Courage,” looking at the problems with current media and the hopes for emerging new approaches to journalism. Some of the comments:
Meredith Lynch, The Moment LIVE! host: “There are people who want CNN to look like Fox News.”
Brian Beutler, founder of the Off Message newsletter: “You can kind of re-create magazines and newspapers in the more personalized space of newsletters.”
Andrea Chalupa, Gaslit Nation podcast host: “What you’re bringing up is media literacy. And there’s a phenomenal org called MAD – because we’re all mad – it’s the Media and Democracy Project. They have weekly events, weekly meet-ups, and all sorts of resources on media literacy.”
Jack Cocchiarella, YouTube host: “When I’m able to land more high-profile interviews, a lot of the comments are saying it’s fantastic that these elected officials are finally starting to realize what people who have been watching independent media for so long have known, which is: This is delightful. This is what we need.”
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Precisely. She’s a mob consigliere. Bravo.
Fruit bearing comments Marc
Great Excerpts
“Fascist Republicans are so thrilled with being in the public eye that they end up exposing their own ugliness.”
“In Peter Baker’s NYT story about Wiles’ interview, he wrote that Trump “has embraced her so much that he referred to her during a rally last week as ‘Susie Trump.’” Wait a second, Pete. Do you really think that was intentional? Take another look. To me, it looked like a brain cramp by a mentally unfit person that Trump tried to cover up by pretending he said it on purpose.
They were clueless enough to pose for photos.”
“Brain cramp” Perfect description