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Trumpland is already looking for midterm scapegoats
Some of the president’s closest allies are in the hot seat ahead of an expected electoral drubbing
The president’s inner circle, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles among them, could experience a shake-up if things go poorly for Republicans in November
With polls looking dire for Republicans ahead of next month’s highly anticipated midterm elections, President Trump and his allies are reportedly wasting little time on the most pressing question of this election cycle: Who will take the blame for the likely, if still theoretical, electoral drubbing? Cue the MAGA infighting, as various White House operators and GOP power brokers jockey to avoid (and in some cases, direct) the president’s guaranteed post-midterm scapegoating.
‘Knives are fully out’
Although Trump has “proven largely incapable of getting out of his own way,” the president is “keenly aware of the grumbling within his party” over the GOP’s midterm prospects and has “begun looking for someone else to take the fall,” said Puck. “Currently at the top of the list” is former White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, who “crafted the party’s midterm strategy.” Days away from a potentially “dire midterm reckoning,” Republicans are “turning their cannons” toward Blair and consulting partner Chris LaCivita, the two men tasked with the “herculean job of maintaining control of Congress,” said Politico.
The hostility toward Blair and LaCivita follows the pair’s recent trip to the Balkans to “advise a Russia-friendly regime’s reelection effort” even as GOP prospects “dwindle back home.” That excursion “opened the floodgates,” said one source to Politico. “The knives are now fully out for these two.”
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“These days,” Trump has also been looking to place midterms blame on Susie Wiles, his “once-unassailable White House chief of staff,” said Politico. The president is “musing about replacements for his top aide” while getting “plenty of encouragement from rivals to Wiles” and those settling scores.
The president’s “once-unassailable ice maiden is melting,” said The New Republic of Wiles. She is “in some deep sh*t,” one Trump adviser told Zeteo. At the same time, Trump has “tried to pour cold water” on rumors of Wiles’ fate by “releasing effusively supportive statements” and characteristically condemning the media as “fake news.”
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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
