Photo from scmp.com
Early in his presidency, Trump's staff and various Cabinet appointees began to realize that their boss was not the man he'd presented himself to be during his campaign run. The dominoes began falling fast and furious, from White House Press Secretaries to high-ranking staffers; none were safe from the flaming haywagon that was the Trump administration.
And the dissenters weren't subtle in their disdain: Former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was famously quoted as referring to Trump as "a moron" shortly before the president fired him. Former US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, a one-time staunch supporter, tweeted a photo of himself wearing socks with Trump's face on them--not something one would do to show respect. Zinke resigned his post in 2019.
Photo Ryan Zinke via Twitter
Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer before and following his election, has written a tell-all book in which, among other accusations, he writes that the Trump campaign was far too incompetent to have schemed with Russia to rig the 2016 election.
"What appeared to be collusion was really a confluence of shared interests in harming Hillary Clinton in any way possible, up to and including interfering in the American election -- a subject that caused Trump precisely zero unease." Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump, by Michael Cohen
Cohen also stated in the book that Trump's mission in making connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin was so that Trump could cash in on a real estate deal in Moscow.
"By ingratiating himself with Putin, and hinting at changes in American sanctions policy against the country under a Trump Presidency, the Boss was trying to nudge the Moscow Trump Tower project along."
Cohen's own culpability in underhanded and at times criminal acts is on record. The book does demonstrate, however, that no love is lost between these former besties.
But, we needn't look only at high-ranking officials to find examples of the contempt Trump's staff has for him. The photo at the beginning of this article shows Trump seated at the tiny desk referred to as a "presser", which is designed to be used for group photos when a president is signing executive orders or other official documents. The desk is undersized so that people can crowd around it and fit in a group shot, like this:
Photo from democraticunderground.com
Sitting at this desk by himself makes Trump look like a buffoon. His staff, including those whose job it is to make sure that the president maintains proper decorum in the media, should never have allowed him to appear like this--that is unless they were actually hoping he'd look ridiculous. If so, good work!
If you're still not convinced, here's a photo of the president taken just a couple of days ago in London, getting out of the presidential limousine with toilet paper stuck to his shoe. You'd think that someone in the car or in his security detail would have noticed and said something to him to save him from embarrassment. You'd be wrong.
Photo by Reuters
And in case you think this is just one of those things that happens sometimes, be aware that this is not the first time Trump has dragged toilet paper around in public. He was roundly humiliated back in 2018 when he was photographed boarding Air Force One with a wad stuck to his shoe. I'm sure he chewed someone out about it back then, but they let it happen again. And probably had a good laugh about it.
While the few remaining Trump staffers desert his sinking ship, they're taking whatever potshots they have left at him. What will happen in the next couple of weeks leading up to president-elect Joe Biden's inauguration remains to be seen. Without a doubt, it's sure to be entertaining.
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