Welcome to Friday’s edition of Washington Secrets. We bring you our usual rundown of the president’s week, with help from our two political strategists.
A press secretary facing scrutiny for her qualifications. The knives are out for Donald Trump’s chief of staff. And a key ambassador is fired after a string of damaging headlines connected to money.
To make matters worse, it is all set against the backdrop of looming midterm losses.
This feels like a rerun of the first season of the Trump show, when the president was constantly battered by rivalries, leaks and investigations.
It rained on Sunday, so on Monday, Columbus Day, the president headed to his Virginia golf club. Later in the day, he held a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where the crowd chanted, “Deport,” when he brought up the raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) home.
Tuesday saw a new face in the briefing room. Katie Zacharia took the podium on only her second day as press secretary to mixed reviews. Journalists complained when she ended the briefing after 14 minutes because of the president’s impending departure to Alaska for a rally.
But she managed to drop a news bombshell, telling reporters that Kimberly Guilfoyle had been asked to resign as ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle was accused of a string of ethical breaches, including asking a donor for $100,000 to pay her American Express bill, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Zacharia joined Trump on Air Force One for the trip, but she left trailing questions and confusion about her resume, including whether she qualified as or practiced as an attorney.
Trump kept up his busy rally schedule on Wednesday. He campaigned in Arizona for Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who is running to be governor, and then in Montana, for GOP congressional candidate Aaron Flint. There he announced plans for a Department of War “super range,” a site for testing new weapons, including autonomous and hypersonic technologies.
He landed back at the White House at 4 a.m. Thursday. Yet he was up and posting on social media before 10 a.m., most notably nixing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s idea of livestreaming the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan.
“He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump posted.
The main event of the day was a Rose Garden lunch for first responders. There he joked, “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, but I have other problems… I have some very severe problems,” then acknowledged the press would ask what he meant by this. “I actually don’t know.”
Meanwhile, he had other problems. Reports surfaced that the president has begun asking aides who should replace Susie Wiles as his chief of staff. Insiders told Secrets that there is a growing sense that she could leave after the midterm elections, and that there is jockeying among top aides for her job.
Wiles was once considered unassailable. But for the past week, she has been on the receiving end of criticism after it emerged that strategist Chris LaCivita and James Blair, her former deputy who now heads a Trump-aligned super PAC, took time out from midterm campaigning to travel to Republika Srpska to consult there. Both are very close to her.
On Friday, the president is due to campaign in Georgia before heading to Palm Beach for the weekend.
So what did our two strategists make of it all?
You are reading Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, who you can reach at [email protected] with your comments, story tips, and suggestions.
John Zogby: Grade F
We learned this week that there is a code of honor among grifters. Not sure where the line is drawn, but it is clear that Kimberly Guilfoyle crossed it.
We also know that press secretaries are supposed to represent the administration, not become the story. Katie Zacharia crossed that line. And the case of her status as a “lawyer” never even got to the line.
According to a Pew poll, the president’s overall approval rating is 30%, an outlier significantly lower than other polls. But his average rating (38%) is still very bad, wherever it is.
Another poll by Fox shows that 70% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy. That’s a lot closer to our John Zogby Strategies poll.
In the face of global disgust with Russia’s actions in Ukraine and defying U.S. sanctions against Russia, Trump struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel fuel from Russia. This has been condemned by members of both political parties and by leaders all over the world. It also will have no effect on prices before Nov. 3 and very little impact after the election.
Defying a federal judge, Trump ordered the removal of more than 500 trees on a golf course across the Potomac.
One good thing, I guess, is that the president has said that there will not be a livestreamed firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter. But when that is the best part of the week, you are setting the bar pretty low.
John Zogby (@ZogbyStrategies) is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should. His podcast with son, managing partner, and pollster Jeremy Zogby, can be heard here.
Jed Babbin: Grade D-
This wasn’t a very good week for Trump and his team. We started off the week with the announcements of a purchase of Russian diesel fuel and almost ended it with a White House promise to livestream the execution of Nidal Hassan.
Russia promised to supply us with 300,000 tons of diesel fuel, to be followed by another 500,000 tons in November. In any event, Trump’s ambition to lower the cost of diesel fuel at the pumps is unlikely to succeed. The deal may be illegal. Several laws have been passed prohibiting the purchase of Russian fuel. Does Trump have the power to make an exception? It’s unlikely that he does, though he has claimed one.
Trump’s “energy cease fire” has failed in Ukraine. The Ukrainians have already responded in kind to Russian attacks on their energy facilities.
The execution of Hassan, a former Army major and psychiatrist, is scheduled for Dec. 3. Hegseth said it would be live-streamed. Now, cooler heads have prevailed, and Trump has canceled the live coverage. We don’t need to make any more of the execution than we already have. Better that one or more female soldiers participate in the firing squad because that means, according to the Islamic scriptures, that he cannot go to heaven.
The Catholic Archbishop of the Army has already said that Catholics shouldn’t be members of the firing squad, so there may be plenty of room for women (and Jews, Episcopals, Baptists and anyone else.)
If ever anyone deserved the death penalty, then Hassan does. He murdered 13 and wounded dozens of others before being shot by a female security officer on Nov. 5, 2009. Too bad she didn’t finish the job.
Meanwhile, Iran still claims to control the Strait of Hormuz, and the Houthis are still attacking Saudi Arabian oil facilities. The French are riding to the rescue, but not the Turks or the Pakistanis, with whom the Saudis have a mutual defense treaty. Good luck with that.
Jed Babbin (@jedbabbin) is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.
Quote of the day
It is always interesting to hear from people who have been up close to Trump and their descriptions of how he goes about his work. This is from Fox News Digital with James Braid, who has just stepped down as director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, and who would have had a central role in managing the president’s relationships with Republicans on Capitol Hill:
“There’s always a give-and-take in any relationship with a legislator, and sometimes there’s a give as a result of, you know, tension. But you know … one errant Truth [Social post], or one critical Truth, does not a relationship make.”
The term “give-and-take” is doing a lot of work there. But the point is that Trump can always put bad feelings aside if he needs to get something done. Just ask Elon Musk.
Lunchtime reading
The Elizabeth Holmes documentary will break your brain: “Only an absolute narcissist or an absolute naïf would allow Nathan Fielder within 10 feet for more than 10 minutes. And so here is Fielder, moving in with Holmes, her partner and two children to spend her last days of freedom as a creeping, boundary-obliterating houseguest.” And if you want spoilers… read on to Part 2 of this review.
The defector – A Russian officer turned against his country and helped Ukraine kill hundreds: An extraordinary study in bravery. And it offers a window into how Ukrainian agents communicate over encrypted platforms with thousands of Russians, ranging from homemakers living near military factories to soldiers on the front line.