The REAL 🐘 In The Room

They basically want articles about the admin to read like a transcript of Dear Leader's Cabinet meetings. https://t.co/aCo8AjPbFj

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 16, 2025

Jonsthan Chait:

To grasp the moral abnormality of this state of affairs, let’s try a thought experiment. Suppose Joe Biden’s chief of staff had told a reporter that the president at least sometimes charged his political enemies with federal crimes because he didn’t like them, and that his most influential officials were ideological zealots, conspiracy theorists, and drug users.

I can imagine two possible responses to such an interview. One is to conclude that the chief of staff had gone crazy and should be fired immediately. The other is to consider the allegations worthy of investigation in order to assess whether the president is fit to hold the powers of the presidency. What I can’t imagine concluding is that the allegations were true and that Biden could continue going on his merry way as president.

Yet this is the Republican Party’s response. The Trump administration swiftly rolled out a series of tributes attesting to Wiles’s loyalty and blaming the “fake news” media for her comments. “The radical left is at it again, trying to create discord on President Trump’s team. It won’t work because we know & love @SusieWiles,” tweeted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who added: “As someone who actually works closely with Susie, I can attest that she is brilliant, tough as nails, and is 100% dedicated to President Trump & America.”

....

Outside of the administration, Trump’s media defenders have responded by angrily castigating Wiles for opening her mouth to the media. “Genuinely sick to death of people on the right who seek the approval of left-wing media. Or even play with them for a minute. I can’t take it. It’s the saddest fetish,” complained the Federalist editor Mollie Hemingway. “You talked to them. What did you expect?” scolded National Review’s Dan McLaughlin.

These esteemed members of the conservative press appear untroubled over whether the Trump administration is in fact filled with crackpots who commit grave abuses of power. Their anger is reserved for Wiles for admitting as much to the “lamestream” media.

In this way, the most remarkable revelation from these newly published interviews comes not from what Wiles did or didn’t say, but in how Trump and his enablers are spinning it. Comments that would have precipitated a crisis in any other presidency are now simply being dismissed—knowingly, cynically—as “fake news.”

Where we are today. Thanks to Trump, and the price of eggs.

It’s the little things that matter. The funny part is not that, however. It’s that we couldn’t acknowledge it, until someone on “their” side said it.

So now what do we do?*

*(I mean the political press corps, of course. They cannot speak, until the “right” parties have spoken. Last time, it was George Clooney. Now the question is: does Susie Wicks count?)