Wilin’ out
President Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality,” White House budget director Russell Vought is a “right-wing zealot” and Elon Musk microdoses ketamine, according to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Musk is “an odd, odd duck,” Wiles told Vanity Fair during an series of 11 – count ’em, eleven – interviews, “as I think geniuses are. You know, it’s not helpful, but he is his own person.” Also, Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” in her handling of the Epstein Files.
This is all good stuff from Chris Whipple’s two-part profile of Trump’s inner circle that confirms two things that Cockburn has long deduced:
1) The second Trump presidency is a bit unusual personality- and policy-wise
2) At the end of the day, Trump 2.0 is still “White House people doing White House things,” not some sort of unprecedented authoritarian takeover of our institutions
Just as importantly, Vanity Fair is back, baby! After being the source of righteous mockery for hiring disgraced journo and Central Park bear-hiding accomplice Olivia Nuzzi and publishing a weird excerpt from her memoir American Canto, VF has returned to its prime function: political zeitgeist ass-kissing, accompanied by photos of its subjects that “go hard.” There’s only so hard that you can go, admittedly, with Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, but if you squint, it’s 1997 again, the lunches are long and the articles are even longer. Not Wiles, though. She’s all business.
“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” Wiles tweeted today about what she called a “disingenuously framed hit piece.” No invite to the VF Oscar party for her!
Kash decisions
Following a bloody rampage at Brown University on Saturday, law enforcement has yet to identify or capture the shooter. Yet FBI Director Kash Patel seems unperturbed. His girlfriend, 27-year-old country singer Alexis Wilkins, posted a photo this morning of the pair attending White House Christmas parties. And Patel, 45, came across rather gooey on Stephen Miller’s wife Katie’s podcast. In the episode – out today! – Patel fields questions such as “When is the engagement?” and “How do you make long distance work?”
Haters might say that today is an unfortunate time for a softball interview on matters of the heart to drop, given that Patel is supposed to be mid-manhunt. Yet if you’re a Trump appointee, the preferred gambit for answering difficult questions is… go on one of your colleague’s wives’ podcasts. This way they can avoid more probing lines of inquiry, such as, “Why are you using FBI planes to visit your girlfriend in Nashville?” (Hey, it’s smarter than speaking to Vanity Fair.)
As with the murder of Charlie Kirk, the order of events following the Brown shooting included detaining the wrong person, announcing his capture, releasing him and giving the assailant more time to hide. Cockburn hopes Patel finds the time to tidy up this debacle – perhaps Lara Trump is available this weekend?
Don Jr. and MTG engaged (not to each other)
Love is in the air in Washington, DC. It’s a Hallmark Christmas movie and a Halloween horror-fest rolled into one. Last night came the news that Donald Trump Jr. is engaged to Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson, which the President, taking a break from his regularly scheduled program of tweeting mean things about murdered celebrities, announced at a White House Christmas party.
This follows Real America’s Voice reporter Brian Glenn choosing love over access, announcing “she said yes” while posting an engagement photo with soon-to-be-ex Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene at Joe’s on 15th St NW.
According to Kara Voght’s excellent Washington Post piece last week, Glenn and Greene bonded over their mutual loves of shooting and working out. “He felt a thrill to discover they had the same Gen X rock bands on their respective playlists: Nickelback, Papa Roach, Shinedown, Bush.” This is how she reminds him of who he really is. Congratulations to the happy couples. Cockburn requests a seat on the bride’s side.
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