Trump is still on his crazy power trip and it’s gotten far worse as his presidency drags on. Not only is the president combative with other politicians, but he’s becoming well known for going up against his own team, ignoring expert advice and making his administration members look terrible.
A new report from Axios reveals that there may just be a reason why Trump keeps undermining his cabinet members — apparently, the president loves news coverage that shows him “acting unilaterally” and doing his own thing — even if it makes his team look bad.
America saw the division in the Trump administration once again yesterday, when he reversed a request from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to cut funding from the Special Olympics. This happened after DeVos had spent days defending her reasoning to cut $18 million from the Special Olympics, and Trump decided to override her and announce he “just authorized a funding of the Special Olympics.” To top it all off, he gloated about it. He said:
I have overridden my people. We’re funding the Special Olympics.”
This just proves that Trump doesn’t care who he has to make look bad in order to look good. Axios reporter Jonathan Swan stated that Trump relishes moments like those, as he “loves to put aides in their place.” Swan reported:
Administration officials past and present have told us that Trump savors news coverage that shows him acting unilaterally. Even — one source said especially — when it involved overriding members of his own administration.”
This has been going on from the beginning — no one can forget how Trump dragged former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and “used to enjoy telling people to ignore Tillerson and that he — the president — was the only one who mattered.” Others that Trump has “constantly and publicly tormented” include his Fed chair, Jay Powell, former attorney general Jeff Sessions, and the intelligence community.
DeVos wasn’t the only administration member who was embarrassed by Trump this week. As Trump took up his crusade against Obamacare once again, he did so against the advice of his HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General William Barr. We all knew that Trump didn’t know how to be a team player, but this is just disturbing.
Featured image via screen capture
