Trump Aides Desperately Struggle to Get Him to Focus as Disaster Looms
The president loves talking about money—just not yours.
Donald Trump’s aides are in a frantic push to get the 80-year-old president to focus on what matters most to voters, because it seems to be the one thing he doesn’t want to talk about.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, 37, who served as White House strategic communications director during Trump’s first term and is now a co-host of The View, sat down with CNN on Wednesday to discuss how “the president continues to seem extremely distracted.”
“White House advisers—I talk to many of them—they simply want him to focus on the economy, yet he will not do that,” she told the network.
Alyssa Farah Griffin served as White House director of strategic communications during Donald Trump's first term in office.
Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
“For some reason, he wants to talk about virtually everything but the economy and lowering the cost of living,” she went on to say.
Griffin added that as a result, “the midterms don’t look great for Republicans,” and that “I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that the House is going to flip.”
Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to Trump's attacks has sent global oil prices skyrocketing, with pain at the pump in the U.S. making itself felt in the polls.
Stringer/REUTERS
A CNN poll, released the same day, shows Trump’s approval ratings have plummeted to an astonishing 34 percent. That’s the lowest number, the network notes, since the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, at the end of his first term.
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A litany of scandals, controversies, and blunders have driven that number steadily down over the past 18 months.
None more so than his handling of the economy, with a staggering two-thirds of respondents saying the president’s policies have “worsened economic conditions in the country.”
Trump, for his part, has consistently refused to admit that unaffordability is even a problem in the United States. He has dismissed cost-of-living concerns as a “hoax” pushed by the Democratic Party.
Trump has struggled to stay awake, much less on message, for much of his second term.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Inflation, unemployment, and sky-high gas prices as a result of Trump’s war on Iran have all combined to hand Democrats an almost 7-point lead on the generic congressional ballot ahead of November’s midterms.
Pollsters and pundits have consistently noted that if Trump’s opponents can maintain that lead going into the vote, they may well wrestle control of the House, and even the Senate, back from the GOP.
Trump's unwillingness to talk about the economy is matched only by the enthusiasm with which he talks about his vanity projects.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
There is, however, one subject the president can talk about for hours—his obsession with rebuilding the nation’s capital.
Trump spent Wednesday in the Oval Office fronting a $22.5 billion rebuild of Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, Reuters reports.
The president has demolished the White House East Wing to make way for a tacky gilded ballroom.
Ken Cedeno/Reuters
A scale model of his rebuilt terminal swallowed the desk. Laser pointer in hand, he picked over renderings he had vetted himself. “You know, it’s a great thrill,” he told reporters who asked why D.C. area refurbs take up so much of his time.
There are numbers to measure that obsession. Trump brought up his capital building schemes no less than 34 times between May 1 and June 10 alone, according to analysis by The Telegraph.
Trump also wants the D.C. monuments to himself to include a gold-plated "triumphal arch" near Arlington Cemetery.
U.S. Commission on Fine Arts/Handout via Reuters
Those mentions during press conferences came along with more than 1,000 Truth Social posts during the same period, of which around a tenth were dedicated to his D.C. overhaul.
Dulles International is only the latest addition to a lengthening list. Apart from covering the Oval Office with tacky gold decorations, Trump has demolished the White House East Wing to make way for a $600 million gilded ballroom. He also wants a 250-foot triumphal arch thrown up near Arlington National Cemetery.
Some of his projects have fared better than others.
Al Drago/Reuters
Plus, he’s remaking the municipal golf links at East Potomac Park into a championship-grade course, and has spent $14 million on an “American flag blue” paint job at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that has so far succeeded only in turning its waters a vibrant, sickly green.
The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story. “No other President in history has accomplished more for the American people than President Trump, who is working tirelessly to create jobs, cool inflation, increase housing affordability, and more,” spokesman Davis Ingle said. “The President has already made historic progress not only in America but around the world, and this is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.”
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