Donald Trump’s inner circle has given up trying to dissuade the president from following through with his policies or plans, even when they know they are bad.
Top White House officials, elected Republicans, and GOP donors told Axios there is no point trying to talk the erratic 80-year-old president out of anything after realizing how futile it will be.
“Why bother?” a longtime Trump adviser said. “He’s the boss.”
Some aides described how Trump has worn them down during his second term as he plows on with disastrous ideas regardless of warnings or input. Others close to Trump have opted for the easy life, knowing he will be out of office in just over two years, and have decided that humoring the president is the simplest option.
“He’s an 80-year-old man who did it his way,” an unnamed donor said. “What he wants, he gets.”
Trump’s second term has been marked by disastrous and unpopular policies, including his $400 million White House ballroom construction project, the war in Iran, and his sweeping tariffs.
Backlash to Trump is expected to severely hurt Republicans in the midterms, which could see the GOP lose control of both the House and the Senate.
One of Trump’s potentially unwise moves to help stop the GOP from suffering an electoral wipeout is to try to make the midterms a referendum on himself. This includes spending millions on television ads touting his apparent achievements and planning to hold near-daily rallies in competitive states and districts in the run-up to the Nov. 3 elections.
Trump will also headline both nights of a two-day midterm convention in Dallas from Wednesday in a desperate bid to drum up enthusiasm and boost Republicans’ election chances.
However, many Republicans fear it is a massive error to put a president who is recording near-all-time-low approval ratings front and center of the GOP’s midterm strategy.
Dozens of Republican lawmakers are avoiding the event, believing that distancing themselves from the deeply unpopular president will improve their own election chances.
White House insiders told Axios that the unpredictable Trump does not always follow through on his impulses. However, they did not provide any examples of times when he was talked down.
Another top Trump adviser warned against discounting Trump, even if he spends his remaining two years as a lame-duck president with Democrats controlling Congress.
“He wields enormous power in the party, in politics and culturally,” the adviser told Axios. “Anyone who thinks he’s going to retreat into the shadows is either stupid or has bad political instincts.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
