As President Donald Trump’s support reaches new lows11 months into his second term, White House officials continue to lavish the president with “obsequious praise,” a sign that top administration officials know Trump “is kind of on his way out,” The New Republic discussed Friday in its “Daily Blast” podcast.
One particularly “obsequious” example of Trump praise came from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday, who announced that the “highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center” had voted “unanimously” to rename the cultural center in Trump’s honor.
While the Kennedy Center Board holds no authority to rename the center, Leavitt’s language, The New Republic’s Greg Sargent argued, was telling of something greater going on behind the scenes.
“She’s echoing his language there, using phrases like ‘highly respected’ and saying ‘Donald J. Trump’ exactly the way he does all the time,” Sargent said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s slathering him with this obsequious praise just after he was mercilessly mocked for his terrible speech to the nation the other night.”
Moira Donegan, a columnist for The Guardian, agreed with Sargent’s assessment, but suggested that Leavitt’s praise was indicative of White House officials being aware that Trump’s one iron-clad grip on the Republican Party was slipping away.
“I think that there is a real sense in Trumpworld that Trump needs to be bolstered, right? That he needs encouragement or sort of reassurance in public of his importance,” Donegan said.
“There is a sense, I think, definitely in the pundit class and in the Beltway, and I think this is inevitably beginning to penetrate the White House itself, that Trump is kind of on his way out. And that’s partly because of his really cratering poll numbers, even on issues like the economy and immigration that used to be his strongest polling issues.”
The apparent realization among White House officials that Trump is losing his grip on his own party, Donegan argued, and his subsequent need for praise, was due to the recent culmination of several factors.
“It’s about the Democratic sweep of the special elections in November. It’s about the fracturing within his coalition, which has really intensified following the death of Charlie Kirk,” she continued.
“And it’s about his, like, visible aging, his visible physical decline, which is becoming harder to ignore and really conspicuous after he made such a big deal in the 2024 cycle over the age and infirmity of President Joe Biden.”
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