MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s assessment of the Trump administration appears to have gotten under the Republican president’s skin.
Maddow called President Donald Trump’s leadership “decorative” on the Friday night broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show, suggesting that “First Buddy” and DOGE director Elon Musk is truly holding the power and the public’s attention.
As Maddow put it to her viewers, “The dynamic between them is weird, in which the president is effectively sidelined while Elon Musk takes center stage.”
She alleged that Trump has been made to look “weak” and “sort of beside the point” as Musk continues to “regularly upstage” and even “talk over him” in interviews and conferences held at the White House. She added, “That would be hard to take for even the least egotistical president.”
Maddow also suggested Trump has left the business of government up to Musk while he golfs and focuses on publicity stunts, including his “cartoonishly outsized interest in posing with big maps,” upon renaming the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America.”
“He appears to be sort of decorative at this point,” she said, adding “the person who’s really working double-time to make the government actually do things appears to be his top campaign donor, who is getting all the attention, and all the credit.”
Trump appeared to address her comments on Saturday morning as he launched a series of rage posts targeting the network.
“MSNBC, COMMONLY KNOWN AS MSDNC, IS A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY,” wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform. “SUCH LYING AND MISREPRESENTATION. BAD PEOPLE AT THE TOP!”
As if in further defiance of Maddow’s comments, Trump also called for Musk to “GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.” He also claimed that his administration has the “HIGHEST POLL NUMBERS EVER,” amid multiple reports that his approval ratings have dipped.
