On the Hill: The Trump administration has hit rock bottom and yet starts to dig
Cianan Sheekey • US • 2 minute read
Image: The White House / Flickr
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Blink, and you’ll miss her!
Pictured above is Katie Zacharia, Trump’s now-former press secretary, who lasted in the post a whopping five days. Another of Trump’s former employees, Anthony Scaramucci, comedically said that “records are made to be broken” in reference to Zacharia becoming the shortest press secretary in history, sticking it out for six days less than Scaramucci could as White House communications director. While this is all quite comedic, it is equally serious and makes you ponder what is happening with the hiring process in the current administration. Zacharia was fired for lying about having passed the BAR and trying to wing it in a job that requires years of political experience, and where did they get this lady from? Trump saw her on TV.
British political satire show The Thick of It lasted only four seasons, despite its cult following, because the creator felt real-life politics was flying too close to his comedic machinations, and while it may be a different country, this all feels like it fell out of the same joke book.
Image: Jose Moreno / Unsplash
Trump needed a boost, and Zacharia was certainly not that. We are almost two weeks away from midterms that could turn the President into an aggressively lame duck, and it’s hard to imagine even the unfathomable $276 million Elon Musk has given to the Republicans will save them. Frankly, there’s quite an easy Democrat attack line in here; turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, so Musk must be getting something out of all of this. It could be as simple as tax breaks, more business-friendly policy, and so on, or the return of Musk as a political insider. DOGE 2: Electric boogaloo? How many more departments can the US government go without?
[For Trump] there's nothing left to lose
A friend of mine, who tries to stay away from US politics as much as he can for the sake of his blood pressure, recently remarked that my scratchings on the subject have sounded like his recently. See, I’ve always remained level-headed about Trump. I was (and, in many ways, still am) a subscriber to the ‘ordinary presidency’ thesis, with much of that analysis standing strong when discussing most of the President’s time in office. But it feels, more than ever, that the gloves are coming off. Trump was always chaotic, but contained. He’s always been jack-in-the-box, ready to invest his boundless energy into random segments of policy at whim; but while by no means meritless, he always had the potential to project the worst impulses of the Republicans, and now, with comedy sketches coming out of our ears, broken promises, and all-time polling lows, there’s nothing left to lose.
So while we’re no longer livestreaming military executions, it still feels like the ride of the President’s second term has only just begun, no matter the outcome of the midterms. My bated breath grows louder, and my weeping for America grows louder.
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•Published: 18/10/26
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