A decision to have Donald Trump address the nation this past week that ended up being poorly received led a panel of New York Times columnists to suggest his White House brain trust is ineffectively managing him.
On Wednesday, the president gave a notably short 18-minute prime time speech that fell flat with supporters, including conservative broadcaster David Brody, who complained, ”That was a waste of time.”
Additionally, the president was ridiculed for shouting his way through it as he blamed his travails on his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Using a pool report that the president turned to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles afterward and asked how he did and she reportedly replied,”‘I told you 20 minutes and you were 20 minutes on the dot,” the Times columnists wondered what game the White House is trying to play.
During the New York Times podcast with columnists Jamelle Bouie, Michelle Cottle and David French, Cottle observed, “One of the things that sort of struck me — the morning-after coverage of this, some media person who was in the room was saying that Trump looked to Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, and asked how he did. And she’s like: Well, I told you 20 minutes and you were spot on, so well done. So I got the sense that they had handed him this thing and told him to keep it short.”
After suggesting, “So I am just not sure what they’re hoping to accomplish with that, other than maybe to increase the calls for him to get another cognitive assessment,” she joked, “But I thought it was pretty magical.”
According to Bouie, “Well, I think that the aim is just to give him something to do. You put him out there to give this 20-minute harangue, and then you tell him it was great and everyone loved it and this’ll turn things around, and then he just goes back to going to his clubs and hanging out in the Oval Office.”
“Are you just suggesting they’re trying to keep Grandpa busy?” Cottle quipped to which her colleague replied, “I think they’re trying to keep Grandpa busy, and this is one way to do it.”
You can listen to their podcast here.
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