Transcription
And now, with Donald Trump being judged a failure in every poll of his presidential job performance, the Trump retreat is underway. And the Department of Government Efficiency, we discovered today. We discovered this morning, no longer exists.
"That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Cooper told Reuters when asked about the Department of Government Efficiency's status. Reuters reported that today at 8:37 a.m.
And so, Elon Musk's indefensible plaything, which produced no government efficiency but did deliver the worst cruelty the United States has ever visited upon people outside of war, is no more. In its heyday, the Elon and Donald show lit up the Oval Office. The room filled with reporters and cameras. And Elon Musk never faced a question from those reporters about what he was doing to the 400,000 children who were dying because of his playing with government, because of what he did to the United States Agency for International Development. Not one question from the White House press corps to Elon Musk about that.
There is no more vivid image of the decline and fall of Donald Trump than the image that was created on Friday with Donald Trump slumped in the Oval Office at the desk in defeat, offering a political surrender to the man who stood beside him in the Elon Musk position. A man 20 years younger than Elon Musk and immeasurably smarter. A man who took over that room as no one before him has ever taken over that room with Donald Trump in it. Donald Trump went from calling the man a communist lunatic to gladhanding him publicly like one of Donald Trump's beloved dictators.
What we saw on Friday was Donald Trump offering an unconditional surrender. Donald Trump has not completed his first year in the second term of his presidency, and he knows he is losing so badly now that he desperately has to do something, and he has no idea what to do. And after calling for the death penalty for members of Congress who simply publicly stated military law, saying that members of the military must not follow illegal orders, even Donald Trump could figure out how insane that comment was. And so Donald Trump desperately needed to do something to change the tone. And the next person in the door was the person he called a communist lunatic.
The day before election day in New York City, Donald Trump said, "If communist candidate Zoran Mdani wins the election for mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing federal funds." And on Friday, Donald Trump said he was going to try to help the new mayor as much as he possibly could with federal funds. A complete reversal, a complete surrender by Donald Trump. The kind of reversal a politician offers only in defeat. Only in surrender.
In that statement, the day before the election in New York City, Donald Trump said, "As a communist, this once great city has zero chance of success or even survival." And with the man he called a communist standing beside him, Donald Trump said he thinks the city is going to do very well with the new mayor. Donald Trump said he would be happy to live in New York City with the new mayor in office. Donald Trump said he would feel safe living in New York City with the new mayor in charge. That is the same Donald Trump who said a day before the election in a social media post to all of his followers, "It is my strong conviction that New York City will be a complete and total economic and social disaster should Mam Donnie win." That was Donald Trump's strong conviction. Donald Trump told all of his followers all over the country that a communist was trying to take over New York City. And it was Donald Trump's strong conviction that that should not happen. And if it does happen, it'll be a complete and total economic and social disaster. That was Donald Trump's strong conviction on November 3rd. A strong conviction.
And 18 days later, Donald Trump on television, looking completely defeated and surrendering, tells all of his followers all over the country that he was lying about his strong conviction 18 days ago. And he now thinks the mayor-elect is a great guy who's going to do a great job, and that the city's going to be great, and Donald Trump's going to help the great new mayor. And Donald Trump said all of that not because he liked the guy, not because he was charmed by him, not because he was charmed by his smile. Donald Trump said all that because Donald Trump is losing, and Donald Trump knows it. Donald Trump said that because he is losing support all over the country. Donald Trump said that because 64% say that he is doing a terrible job on economic issues.
And Donald Trump, who days ago said he doesn't want to hear the word affordability, sat slumped beside the young, vibrant affordability candidate and tried to use him as a political sign that he, Donald Trump, gets it. Donald Trump understands that the issue now is affordability, but it's a word Donald Trump can't quite say. And because Donald Trump cannot put his positions in the English language, he thought that the symbol of the new young mayor-elect and Donald Trump getting along, the symbol of Donald Trump getting along with the affordability guy, would work for Donald Trump. It was pure, pathetic, losing political calculation by a loser. By a president who presided over a party that just had its worst election day imaginable all over the country, from New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Virginia to Georgia to California, everywhere there was an election, Donald Trump lost everywhere. And Donald Trump knows it.
And Donald Trump proved once again on Friday that his words mean nothing. Donald Trump proved that every word he said against candidate Mdani meant nothing. And that means that every word Donald Trump says in his defense about the Epstein files means nothing. It means every word Donald Trump says about everything means nothing. And Donald Trump is proving and proving that his words mean nothing, proving that now in ways that even his least alert followers can understand. They saw Donald Trump welcome the man he called a communist lunatic and embrace him in the Oval Office. And so Trump followers now see Donald Trump lose not only what they thought were Donald Trump's superpowers, but actually losing in a confrontation with a 34-year-old politician running in his first important election. Donald Trump tried to destroy Zoran Mandani, and the young man beat the old man, and the old man formally surrendered to the young man and did it on TV. That image captures the decline and fall of Donald Trump as no other image has yet captured.
Friday was the day that Donald Trump's previously devoted follower, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, announced that she would not run for reelection after Donald Trump's relentless attacks on her because she believed the Epstein files should be released. In announcing that she would not run for reelection next year and would resign from Congress on January 5th, Marjorie Taylor Greene said, "Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked, and used by rich, powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor, and threatened by the president of the United States." But it did. That is exactly the way it happened. Donald Trump loved Marjorie Taylor Greene until she said the Epstein Files should be released, and then Donald Trump considered her a traitor. So yes, Donald Trump considers Marjorie Taylor Greene a traitor because, as she put it, she stood up for women who were trafficked and raped at 14. You do that, and Donald Trump thinks you're a traitor. She stood up for women who were used by rich and powerful men, including the man who was Donald Trump's closest friend for 10 years. And if you do that, Donald Trump calls you a traitor. Jeffrey Epstein said he was Donald Trump's closest friend for 10 years. Donald Trump said Jeffrey Epstein was a terrific guy at the height of that friendship.
5:38 a.m. is no time for anyone to be tweeting. But 79-year-old Donald Trump has never slept well. And now, in his agony of defeat, with the Epstein files closing in on him, with his attempts to prosecute the people he hates failing, and with a unanimous vote of a Republican Congress against him last week, Donald Trump took to social media at 5:38 a.m. this morning and posted the stupidest thing ever said by a president or anyone in the federal government in history on tariffs. And no news organization bothered to pick it up. There's no story in the New York Times today about the president of the United States saying that his tariffs are "being charged to other countries."
At 5:38 a.m. this morning, a totally deranged Donald Trump tweeted about, "The massive amount of money being made by the United States of America, hundreds of billions of dollars, as a direct result of tariffs being charged to other countries." I repeat, no tariff issued by the United States has ever been charged to another country. No one in the history of the federal government has ever believed that that was possible. No one in the American news media has ever believed that that was possible, except at Fox. Of course, it would be like the president of the United States saying the Atlantic Ocean is on the west coast of the United States. And for that comment to pass without remark by nearly all of the national news media, an utterly insane, demented statement indicating the complete collapse of neurological function in a president of the United States. And it's virtually ignored.