The question Trump cannot answer
Jack Elbaum
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There is only one word adequate to describe former President Donald Trump’s interview with Bret Baier last night: disaster. Aside from possibly admitting to criminal actions and defending withholding classified documents because the boxes containing them were interspersed with “golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes,” he was also left with no answers when pressed on the staffing decisions he made while president. The implications are damning.
Trump claimed, “I now know Washington probably better than anybody. I know the good ones and the bad ones and we will have really great, strong people” in a future administration. Later, Baier listed off the many, many people Trump hired and later trashed as “weak and ineffective,” “born with a very small brain,” and “dumb as a rock.”
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The question was simple: “So why did you hire all of them in the first place?”
Trump’s answer? “Because I hired 10-1 that were fantastic. For every one you say, I had ten that love us.”
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But this is not a real answer because the people Trump derided as a “gutless pig,” a “born loser,” and “the world’s most overrated general” were some of the most senior people in his administration. None of them were random, irrelevant staffers. Rather, we’re talking about his chief of staff, press secretary, secretary of state, the attorney general, and others of similar stature. There was seldom a time when an important figure left the White House and was not given a farewell stab in the back.
One could count the people who left unscathed on one hand. By Trump’s standards, essentially none of his important hires turned out well. He would have nobody to mention if asked to list those who he actually considered “fantastic.”
There is a reason it is really a question Trump can never answer honestly. It’s because the real answer entails him admitting one of two things: Either 1) he does not actually only hire the “best people” and know Washington “better than anyone else,” or 2) his animus toward most of these former employees stems not from poor job performance but from a personal vendetta. After all, many of these hires were actually quite good. It is only by Trump’s own retroactive standards that they were incompetent.
But admitting either of these things makes Trump look stupid, weak, petty, and disloyal — which means he can never give a straight answer. Instead, he has to revert to distortions that serve no other purpose than to make him feel better at night. We do not need another four years of someone this emotionally weak and intellectually empty.
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But the implications of Trump’s comments go far beyond personal issues. That he constantly insults those who used to work for him, and makes life impossible for his lawyers, means he will not be able to staff a second administration with competent people. He has burned most of the bridges with those who made his administration run last time, and his erratic, unprofessional behavior will inevitably repel those he would want to work with in the future. This is a real problem because the only way for an administration to run smoothly and efficiently is with, as Trump says, “the best people.”
At some point, the Trump spectacle must come to an end. Each day, it becomes ever more exhausting, ridiculous, and embarrassing both for the Republican Party and for the country. It’s time to move on.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.