It was a Jack Nicholson-Tom Cruise moment. President Trump couldn’t handle the truth. He didn’t even know the truth. And he has no respect for truth, so even if he knew, why would he tell the truth about the truth?
At a White House lunch with African leaders on Wednesday, Trump engaged in a bizarre exchange with the New York Times White House reporter Shawn McCreesh.
The day before, when CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked the president who authorized the pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine — at a time when Russia is engaged in a barbarous onslaught, indiscriminately killing civilians — Trump replied, defensively: “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”
The Pentagon’s puer aeternus, Pete Hegseth, was sitting right beside Trump. And reporters soon ferreted out the information that perennial screw-up Hegseth had ordered the pause without telling Trump, Marco Rubio and other top officials.
Trump reversed the Pentagon chief, reflecting a belated awareness of the fact that Vladimir Putin is playing him for a fool. Like a spurned lover, he keened that his Russian boyfriend’s promises are “meaningless.”
In a follow-up the next day, McCreesh asked Trump if he had figured out who had ordered the munitions to Ukraine halted.
When Trump said no, McCreesh pressed him: “What does it say that such a big decision could be made inside your government without your knowing?”
Trump bristled. A jester like Hegseth had kept the king in the dark on a consequential move.
“If a decision was made, I will know,” Trump blustered. “I’ll be the first to know. In fact, most likely I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”
It is not reassuring, at a time of man-made and natural disasters, that the president is spouting gobbledygook and his maladroit cabinet members are spinning out.
It’s a paradox: If you choose your cabinet based on looks, you are likely to end up with a cabinet that makes you look bad. Running government is harder than bloviating on Fox News and assorted podcasts.
And if you demand über-fealty from your advisers, you will end up surrounded by toadies who don’t level with you.
In the dishy new book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf describe how Sergio Gor, a Trump aide who rose by publishing Trump’s coffee table books, created draconian loyalty tests during the transition.
“Trump believed the biggest mistake of his first term was picking disloyal officials, and Gor was determined to disqualify candidates who had ever criticized Trump or anyone associated with him,” the authors write.
Kristi Noem is loyal to Trump. But perhaps it was too much to ask that someone who executed her own puppy was going to understand the humanitarian necessity of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Noem has been parroting Trump and talking about abolishing FEMA since she got the job heading the Department of Homeland Security. She recently enacted a debilitating rule designed to cut the FEMA budget, dictating that every grant and contract over $100,000 needs explicit permission from her.
As CNN pointed out, that’s “pennies” in an agency where disaster costs soar into the billions. At the same time, The Times reports, the agency didn’t answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster line because it had fired hundreds of call center contractors. (Now, confronted with the Texas disaster, the administration is backing off the eradication plan.)
As Trump was preparing to travel to Kerr County, Texas, to inspect flood damage on Friday, the White House posted a meme of him as Superman, playing off the new movie about the Man of Steel. But the initial federal response was less than super. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, CNN reported, and there have been questions about crucial staffing shortages at the National Weather Service as floodwaters rose.
Pam Bondi enraged the Trump faithful when, after she inflamed conspiracy theorists about Jeffrey Epstein documents, her D.O.J. said Monday there was nothing more to see. No client list. Move along, please. “Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?” an irritated Trump asked reporters about his erstwhile pedophile playmate.
Laura Loomer demanded that Bondi resign, writing on X: “I cannot sugar coat how much good will Pam Blondi has cost the Trump admin with the base this week. She is a massive liability to President Trump.”
On Wednesday, Bondi angrily accused Dan Bongino, conspiracist podcaster turned F.B.I. deputy director, of leaking stories that whipped up expectations for Epstein secrets. He denied it, and told people he was considering quitting.
Now furious right-wing conspiracists think there’s a cover-up of the cover-up.
Vapidly, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested people on Medicaid could replace deported immigrants. They can pick our crops! It’s unreal, but Sean Duffy, once a “Real World” cast member, is in charge of transportation and NASA. And don’t forget the scary spike in measles cases fueled by the anti-vaccine crowd; thank you, R.F.K. Jr.!
It turns out, even good-looking dodos are still dodos.
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Maureen Dowd is an Opinion columnist for The Times. She won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. She is the author, most recently, of “Notorious.” @MaureenDowd • Facebook
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