Misread Mandate

Donald Trump never had the authority, or the political support, media moguls seemed to think he did. What’s next for the outlets that capitulated?

At lunchtime on Wednesday, the day after the country delivered a midterm thrashing to the Republican Party, Donald Trump made some unscheduled remarks inside the skeleton of the White House ballroom. His mood was subdued, his voice quiet, his sentences trailing off. Talking about the steel, marble, and bronze of the construction project failed to animate him. When reporters asked about the midterm defeat, he appeared thoughtful, conceding that the Iran war had probably wounded his party’s fortunes. But within a couple of days, his tone was different. On Friday, he promoted Stephen Miller, an anti-immigrant ideologue with undemocratic tendencies, to White House chief of staff. (Miller replaced Susie Wiles, who had previously been his boss.) On Saturday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he’d offered the vacant job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, and urged UFC fighters to come along to the White House. Trump praised White as “a violent Fighter and Warrior” who is needed “to defend us against the Lunatic Left.” On Sunday, he posted a meme of UFC fighters attacking the press. (Trump later said the job offer was a joke: “That was an example of something where I was kidding, and then people said, ‘You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea.’” The pair are meeting on Monday, they both said, although the appointment may turn out to be purely social.) Perhaps the lessons Trump gleaned from his mentor Roy Cohn were echoing in his head: Attack, attack, attack, and never back down.