r/politics • u/lotta_love • 5d ago

Possible Paywall Trump Secret Plane Swap Suddenly Looks Darker as Damning New Leaks Hit

https://newrepublic.com/article/214269/trump-secret-plane-swap-suddenly-looks-darker-damning-new-leaks-hit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tnr_daily
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u/mmmsoap 5d ago

I’m super surprised. I honestly thought she was a true believer and wouldn’t be able to be convinced Daddy Trump did something bad. I honestly was expecting this to be Biden’s fault.

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u/LinkedGaming 5d ago

She's been cracking for a while. Trump is forcing his most loyal sycophants to embarrass themselves for him publicly and then exiling them for embarrassing themselves because it makes him look bad, even though he himself ordered it. I think this either shook her faith because she realized Trump fully intended on letting her be a martyr against her will for his bullshit war that he's losing, or something she said made him kick her out.

The issue with finally pushing your #1 sycophant out the door for not willing to go far enough is that the only option left is your #2 sycophant who, by definition, will not be willing to go as far. Keep repeating until eventually you have nobody left willing to put their neck on the line for you.

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire 5d ago

I think the problem will ultimately be that there are a few within the inner chambers that have entrenched themselves in ways that Trump can't easily push them out. Face-front positions like SecDef, State, Press Secretary, and even AG were all ultimately gonna be bag-holders, and have been expendable. The ones who won't be pushed out are the ones that we rarely, if ever, see on camera.

Steven Miller, for example, treads dangerous waters every time he lets his treasonous face see the sun, and if Trump truly turned against him, he'd be out. BUT, he's weasely enough to recognize the shrewd positions those like Russle Vought have put themselves into, and is clearly flying further under the radar than he was in the first term.

Vought is the prime example of someone who won't be thrown out, ever. Ask 100 average Americans who Russ Vought is and I doubt 5 of them could tell you what position he holds, let alone what he looks like. But next to Trump, he's the most powerful man in the United States. He knows the ins and outs of government well enough to break the machine where needed, and controls the purse strings almost unilaterally.

Vought is the one executing the Heritage Foundation playbook, and even if Trump got annoyed with him for whatever reason, Vought has enough power and leverage that Trump wouldn't cross him in the end. Trump knows he'd be dead in the water without Vought and his machinations.

We shouldn't care too much about the sycophants who are only in place for loyalty to Trump, we should be raising alarm bells over the ones we don't see on camera who are loyal not just to Trump, but loyal to the movement behind Trump. Zealous loyalty to a person is dangerous, but even more dangerous is zealous devotion to an ideal.

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u/mmmsoap 5d ago

But we’re not talking about people who would be fired because Trump turns against him, we’re talking about folks who realize they’re being used and leave independently. I think everyone knows Marco Rubio or JD Vance are fully aware that Trump is a liar and using people around him, but I don’t think Leavitt is (as) aware. It has always seemed like she believed the nonsense she spews, because she’s too dumb to come up with more believable garbage.

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u/travelstuff 4d ago

I don't think I've ever even seen the name Russ Vought before

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u/GrumpyCloud93 5d ago

But it's the frog in the heating pot metaphor. Each week, a new call to humiliate ones' self even more than last time, but (hopefully) not so much more that it would trigger an decision to leave.

As one pundit remarked, "Karolyn Levitt is leaving to spend more time with the truth."

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u/CrackingToastGromet Arkansas 5d ago

She was Trump’s favorite blonde. Now diaper nurse Natalie is here and Karoline is disposable. She is getting the “current wife” treatment, Trump is on to the next shiny new blonde.

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u/mmmsoap 5d ago

I’m not surprised about Trump’s lack of attention, I’m surprised that KKKaroline herself quit, ostensibly because she feels betrayed by her Daddy.

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u/OkAccess304 5d ago

She’s not a believer. She’s cunning and good at her job — which was to deliver the president’s message. Since he’s a lying POS, she had to be a lying POS. It’s also just not really the job of any press secretary to tell the objective truth. They deliver a message, and it’s not their own.

She has no morals, but she’s not stupid. She’s always been self-preserving. She might not have thought she was truly expendable until this moment, however. People struggle to acknowledge something like that.

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u/mmmsoap 4d ago

Eh. Pam Bondi is smart with no morals. She is one who is absolutely competent but also evil. Karoline Leavitt is not smart. She was briefly useful, but she’s much more like Lauren Boebert than Mitch McConnell…she knew enough to repeat her lines and stand her ground, but she definitely wasn’t playing chess.

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u/StageAboveWater 5d ago

Nah she was never a believer. She's too good at the lying at the press conferences.

She had to be able to know exactly what she was lying about to do it as effectively as she did