Trump on Reiner, Wiles on Trump

MAGA’s Messaging Meltdown this week has seen the Trump staff failing completely of their space of core competence: controlling the narrative.

UPDATE: Dec 17 17:45PM Dan Bongino introduced his resignation from the FBI. Particulars on the backside of the submit.

This comes at a time when, as Politico writes:

the Trump administration grapples with a number of unhealthy headlines: the unemployment price is up and Trump’s approval rankings are down. Election losses and GOP underperformance have high Republicans anxious a couple of doubtlessly disastrous midterm election, and there may be rising worry on the correct a couple of land conflict in Venezuela.

The Wiles interview (in Self-importance Honest) fuels the concept that occasions are main Trump quite than the opposite means round. Over the previous few weeks the White Home has suffered a collection of setbacks on all the pieces from Congress voting to compel the discharge of the Epstein information to the courts tossing out instances in opposition to New York Legal professional Common Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

Fish rot from the pinnacle, so let’s begin on the high.

Trump Acquired Near the Edge With Reiner Remarks

As Aaron Mate instructed Choose Napolitano, POTUS Trump is perhaps proper that the late, nice Rob Reiner had Trump Derangement Syndrome and plenty of CIA connections, however the day of the nice man’s loss of life wasn’t the time for the President of the United Sates to place out this assertion about it:

Trump’s crass tastelessness drew fireplace from the Hollywood proper, black pilled Zoomer Nick Fuentes, and Congressional MAGA and RINO Republicans alike.

I’ll give credit score for doubling down although. He could also be quickly senescecizing however he is aware of rule #1 of media teflon: by no means apologize, by no means again down.

When requested at a press convention, “Do you stand by that submit?”, Trump stated:

Properly, I wasn’t a fan of his in any respect. He was a deranged individual so far as Trump is worried. And he stated uh he favored he knew it was false. In reality, it’s the precise reverse that I used to be uh a pal of Russia managed by Russia.

You recognize, it was the Russia hoax. He was one of many folks behind it. I feel he harm himself in career-wise. He turned like a deranged individual. Trump derangement syndrome. So, I used to be not a fan of Rob Reiner in any respect in any means, form, or kind. I assumed he was very unhealthy for our nation.

If it wasn’t for the MSM implosion of Trump’s White Home Chief of Employees and his FBI Director, I’d in all probability chalk the Reiner kerfluffle as much as gossip controversy of the day ephemeral nonsense.

However Trump’s being failed by his staff, as at all times given his narcissist’s through-a-mirror-darkly cockeye for expertise.

Susie Wiles Falls within the Self-importance Honest Tarpit

Self-importance Honest is probably not what it was once, nevertheless it nonetheless has a novel maintain on the American media and political elite.

As such a Self-importance Honest cowl story has a magnet tar pit entice attract that’s confirmed the break of many a poor aspiring President and the worst Presidential administration of the twenty first century:

Who checked out this picture and stated yeah, lets do it once more! pic.twitter.com/kpb1jiqsa9

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) December 16, 2025

Susie Wiles, Trump’s 68-year-old Chief of Employees, couldn’t resist and she or he’s at present trapped within the scorching tar and dragging as a lot of the administration in along with her as she will.

She made the choice to provide the journal 11 sit down interviews over a number of months and now right here’s her response (in her first tweet in over a yr):

The article printed early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the best President, White Home workers, and Cupboard in historical past.

Important context was disregarded and far of what I, and others, stated concerning the staff and the President was overlooked of the…

— Susie Wiles (@SusieWiles) December 16, 2025

Possibly she was offended partly due to the best way Self-importance Honest, like every huge sport hunter, bragged about their trophy kill:

“Most senior White Home officers parse their phrases and converse solely on background,” stories Self-importance Honest author Chris Whipple. “However over many on-the-record conversations, [Susie] Wiles answered nearly each query I put to her.”

Half 2 of two: https://t.co/4eezfCsdkR pic.twitter.com/0dSbuOLJ5A

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) December 16, 2025

Or perhaps it’s due to the various bombshells she dropped on “alcoholic persona” Trump and her colleagues like “odd duck” Elon Musk and JD Vance (who she’ll be supporting in 2028).

She additionally had spicy feedback concerning the “vindictive prosecutions” of James Comey and Letitia James (“I don’t suppose he wakes up fascinated about retribution. However when there’s a chance, he’ll go for it.”), Trump and Jeffrey Epstein (“they have been younger bachelors collectively”), and Trump’s Venezuela technique being about Maduro, not druges (“needs to maintain on blowing boats up till Maduro cries uncle. And other people means smarter than me say that he’ll.”).

Wiles additionally claimed she had a “free settlement” with Trump to finish the “rating settling” after his first 90 days.

The above was me summarizing the Axios piece I linked to provide readers an thought what’s ricocheting across the social media being adopted by the MSM.

Like most different semi-employed People I don’t have time to wallow in a Self-importance Honest celeb gossip insider piece, however listed below are hyperlinks to half 1 and half 2.

I do extremely advocate this TikTok evaluation of the brilliance of Self-importance Honest’s visible take down of Trump’s staff by Kendall Ally Brown.

@kendallybrown

That Self-importance Honest piece is one million instances extra brutal when you begin noticing these delicate particulars in a bunch of the pictures used. I’d merely stroll into the ocean and by no means return if one thing like this was printed about me lol

♬ unique sound – Kendall Brown

I’ll additionally level out The Monetary Instances Christopher Miller’s counter to Treasury Secretary Bessant’s backstory of the notorious February live-from-the Oval Workplace blow up between Trump, Vance and the Ukrainian President.

Some MSNBC’s MS Now dude’s dire warning that “Not like John Kelly, who tried to stop Trump from committing crimes or doing one thing unwise, Susie Wiles needs to facilitate his needs.”

And this New York Instances-er’s savvy scorekeeping in Wiles’ favor, “the pushback’s a bit humorous as a result of the Self-importance Honest piece doesn’t dispute that Susie Wiles’s management has been efficient at attaining Trump’s agenda.”

I’ll embrace this psuedonymous pro-Ukrainian memester’s gutter gossip take as a result of a well-crafted hit tweet like this needs to be seen to be believed:

So now the Trump administration and all of MAGA social media is saying that Self-importance Honest did a “hit piece” once they printed a photograph displaying Karoline Leavitt’s – to place it mildly – disturbing trying lips. And both she’s acquired some kind of leprosy of the lips, or to cite… pic.twitter.com/l0fkCt7XFs

— PaulleyTicks (@PaulleyTicks) December 17, 2025

I can’t resist sharing this well-crafted meta New Journalism cash shot Self-importance Honest’s Chris Whipple dropped in his fourth paragraph:

We regularly spoke on Sundays after church. Wiles, an Episcopalian, calls herself “Catholic lite.” One time we spoke whereas she was doing her laundry in her Washington, DC, rental. Trump, she instructed me, “has an alcoholic’s persona.” Vance’s conversion from By no means Trumper to MAGA acolyte, she stated, has been “type of political.” The vp, she added, has been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.” Russell Vought, architect of the infamous Challenge 2025 and head of the Workplace of Administration and Funds, is “a right-wing absolute zealot.” After I requested her what she considered Musk reposting a tweet about public sector employees killing thousands and thousands beneath Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, she replied: “I feel that’s when he’s microdosing.” (She says she doesn’t have first-hand information.)
Wiles is probably the most highly effective individual in Trump’s White Home aside from the president himself; in contrast to any chief of workers earlier than her, she is a lady.

I’ll additionally quote how the NY Instances rewrote what she stated about Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, J.D. Vance and the Epstein information:

“I feel she utterly whiffed on appreciating that that was the very focused group that cared about this,” Ms. Wiles stated. “First, she gave them binders stuffed with nothingness. After which she stated that the witness checklist, or the shopper checklist, was on her desk. There is no such thing as a shopper checklist, and it certain as hell wasn’t on her desk.” Mr. Vance, against this, understood the sensitivity as a result of he himself was “a conspiracy theorist,” she stated.

Ms. Wiles stated she has learn the Epstein paperwork and acknowledged that Mr. Trump’s title is in them. “We all know he’s within the file,” she stated. “And he’s not within the file doing something terrible.”

Mr. Musk has acknowledged making an attempt ketamine “a couple of years in the past,” however denied stories of newer use. Within the interview with The Instances on Monday, Ms. Wiles took difficulty with the quote attributed to her about his drug use. “That’s ridiculous,” she stated. “I wouldn’t have stated it and I wouldn’t know.” However Mr. Whipple performed a tape for The Instances by which she could possibly be heard saying it.

Beginner hour transfer on Wiles’ half to attempt to deny a quote with a skilled media murderer like Whipple who doesn’t have a kill until he can show it to a number of reality checkers with stable documentation.

Trump’s staff circled the wagons round Wiles, taking their que from Trump who gave his loyal ally The New York Submit a classic Trump response to Wiles’ alcoholic remark.

J.D. Vance had the slickest response, after bragging he hadn’t learn the article:

“Typically I’m a conspiracy theorist, however I solely consider within the conspiracy theories which are true,” Vance stated.

“And by the best way, Susie and I’ve joked in personal and in public about that for a very long time,” Vance continued. “For instance, I believed within the loopy conspiracy idea again in 2020 that it was silly to masks three-year-olds on the top of the COVID pandemic, that we must always really allow them to develop some language expertise. I believed on this loopy conspiracy idea that the media and the federal government have been overlaying up the truth that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job.”

He added: “If any of us have discovered a lesson from that Self-importance Honest article, I hope that the lesson is we needs to be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media shops.”

So no open public infighting from contained in the White Home, however Politico has the nameless quotes that are all centered on the Self-importance Honest piece as a tactical misstep quite than a betrayal:

the greater than 10,000-word Self-importance Honest unfold, primarily based on 11 interviews over the course of a yr, shiny photo-spreads and on-the-record quotes from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a lot of Trump’s allies scratching their heads, questioning why the very high of the administration would take part within the interview. And the way might Wiles, lauded for her political acumen and loyalty, have miscalculated so badly?

The interview was “extraordinarily demoralizing,” stated an individual near the White Home.

A second individual near the White Home stated merely: “Up to now … WTF.”

A 3rd individual near the White Home stated they’ve identified Wiles for many years and was “very shocked” that she participated.
…
The third individual stated there may be a number of GOP frustration that the White Home appears undisciplined at a time it must hammer its accomplishments on the economic system.

“What are we speaking about? Jeffrey Epstein and Venezuela? James Comey? Letitia James? There’s a frustration on that, and I feel a number of that’s frustration with the White Home, however a number of it’s frustration with the president,” the individual stated.

The piece lands because the Trump administration grapples with a number of unhealthy headlines: the unemployment price is up and Trump’s approval rankings are down. Election losses and GOP underperformance have high Republicans anxious a couple of doubtlessly disastrous midterm election, and there may be rising worry on the correct a couple of land conflict in Venezuela.

The Wiles interview fuels the concept that occasions are main Trump quite than the opposite means round. Over the previous few weeks the White Home has suffered a collection of setbacks on all the pieces from Congress voting to compel the discharge of the Epstein information to the courts tossing out instances in opposition to New York Legal professional Common Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

So even when MAGA’s messaging meltdown isn’t tearing aside the Trump staff, we would have a few ugly ducklings working onerous to get kicked off the island.

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino Standing Out for Silly

Trump’s FBI mind belief might not have been dragged too deeply into Wiles’ Self-importance Fare mire, however they’re getting loads of adverse consideration all on their very own.

Right here’s what the NY Instances is saying about “the bureau’s self-promotional high official” FBI Director Kash Patel within the form of huge characteristic piece that qualifies as bad-jacketing in each sense of the time period:

Mr. Patel’s impulse to grab the highlight and publicize the work of the bureau beneath his management has revived questions on his competence and his future within the administration. It has added to the rising criticism over his leisure journey, his use of a SWAT staff to guard his girlfriend and his dealing with of the Epstein information.
…
But even when Trump officers have privately criticized Mr. Patel for embarrassing the administration, significantly over his use of presidency belongings, rumors about his firing or pressured resignation have but to materialize. In reality, Mr. Patel has just lately instructed folks in his orbit he intends to remain on no less than by the 2026 midterm elections, whereas acknowledging that the president might change his thoughts at any time.

One issue maybe working in Mr. Patel’s favor: Mr. Trump’s high home coverage adviser, Stephen Miller, considers Mr. Patel to be a compliant purveyor of his directives on personnel and coverage issues, in line with a number of folks acquainted with the scenario who mentioned inside deliberations on the situation of anonymity.

The destiny of Mr. Patel’s high deputy, Dan Bongino, one other incendiary former podcaster and longtime Trump loyalist, seems to be extra settled, although not totally sure.

We’ll come again to Bongino however first we’ve to debate the YouTube mess Patel and his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins stepped into when making an attempt to do a way of life interview with influencer Katie Miller.

This interview proved so ill-timed that it’s YouTube description now reads “THIS INTERVIEW WAS TAPED BEFORE THE HORRIFIC SHOOTING AT BROWN UNIVERSITY.”

No have to yell, Katie.

Wilkins is more than likely to be remembered for making the Mick-Jagger-sues-The-Information-of-the-World-mistake when she sued an ex-FBI agent and podcaster Kyle Seraphin who accused her of being a “honeypot” for Mossad.

The memorably named Seraphin’s podcast was additionally the present the place “far-right influencer, FBI agent and former Patel ally” and January sixth MAGA martyr acquired himself fired from Patel’s FBI for this memorable (and chilling) rant:

You higher pray to Gaia, Vishnu or no matter your maker is that RealSteveFriend is rarely ready to be an instrument of God’s wrath, as a result of I will likely be merciful. I’ll help you breathe each breath that your physique may have for the remainder of its pure life within a field, after which when it in the end fades to black, that’s when the actual wrath begins.

The Venn Diagram of former Federal Agent influencers and psychopaths does look like a circle, however this was one thing else.

However again to Patel’s most up-to-date podcast-bourne self-inflicted wound.

The RINO-ish outlet Mediaite had a tut-tutting tackle the interview:

The interview Kash Patel just lately gave alongside his girlfriend, nation music performer Alexis Wilkins, was not a lapse in judgment or a failure to learn the room. It was not a distraction from his duties as FBI director. It was an expression of how he understands these duties.

Patel appeared in a pleasant, lifestyle-style dialog hosted by Katie Miller, spouse of senior Trump aide Stephen Miller, ostensibly to “demystify” conspiracy theories and humanize his relationship. As an alternative, the looks landed as jarring and unserious. Miller launched a teaser video by which they chuckle on the conspiracy idea that Wilkins is a Mossad agent; you may watch it above.

Critics throughout ideological strains questioned why the director of the FBI was centered on correcting gossip and narrating his private life whereas the suspect within the lethal capturing at Brown College remained at massive. Former prosecutors, media critics, and even some conservative commentators described the interview as tone-deaf, indulgent, and emblematic of skewed priorities on the bureau’s highest stage.
…
That response issues—not as a result of Patel offended sensibilities, however as a result of it uncovered a deeper mismatch between what the general public nonetheless expects of the FBI director and what Patel seems to suppose the job requires.

The normal FBI director has primarily been outlined by restraint, distance, and near-total invisibility, with some notable exceptions. The workplace’s authority flows from its refusal to personalize energy. Patel does the other. He surfaces always. He narrates himself. He treats public visibility not as a danger to institutional credibility, however as a characteristic of management.

Patel was not put in to protect the bureau’s post-Hoover mannequin of apolitical authority. He was put in to greater than disrupt it, however to personalize it within the picture of a decidedly pro-Trump establishment — to make the FBI legible as loyal, seen, and aligned with President Donald Trump quite than insulated from him. An FBI director who performs loyalty in public is telegraphing that investigations will move from political will, not institutional independence.

I can’t determine if Mediaite and their evaluation is sort of a blind squirrel bragging concerning the cherry they suppose they discovered that’s really a hand grenade or vice-versa.

Regardless, Patel is laying aside a stink of silly AND drawing consideration to himself.

Absolutely Patel is aware of drawing an excessive amount of consideration to your self is the cardinal sin of Trumpworld.

That’s been identified since Steve Bannon acquired fired in 2017, not for evaluating himself to Thomas Cromwell, however for getting an excessive amount of optimistic press doing so.

One podcaster who seems to have flown too near the solar is Patel’s sidekick Dan Bongino.

Podcasting G-Man Going Down?

For these not into ex-Feds-turned-podcasters, right here’s how Wikipedia introduces its bio of FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino who seems to be on his means out:

Daniel John Bongino (/bɒndʒiːnoʊ/ bon-JEE-noh; born December 4, 1974) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, and former legislation enforcement officer who has served because the twentieth deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2025. He hosted The Dan Bongino Present on Rumble and beforehand hosted Unfiltered with Dan Bongino on Fox Information till April 2023.

Bongino started his profession as a New York Metropolis Police Division (NYPD) officer from 1995 to 1999 earlier than serving as a U.S. Secret Service agent from 1999 to 2011. He later unsuccessfully ran for Congress 3 times as a Republican. On February 23, 2025, President Donald Trump introduced that Bongino had been named the following deputy director of the FBI. He assumed workplace on March 17, after concluding his commentating roles on March 14.

It’s additionally price together with the part on Bongino’s huge plans for his FBI tenure:

In Could 2025, Bongino introduced that he and Patel would reopen or dedicate extra sources to a few unresolved investigations: the pipe bombs positioned close to the Republican Nationwide Committee and Democratic Nationwide Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021; the leak of the Dobbs draft opinion in 2022; and the invention of cocaine on the White Home in July 2023. Later that month, Bongino claimed on Fox Information that the FBI had found a room containing paperwork from former FBI Director James Comey’s tenure that had not been correctly digitized or logged, stating “you’re going to be shocked” by the contents as soon as declassified.

Now it seems to be throughout, per The NY Solar piece titled: “Dan Bongino’s FBI Workplace Is Empty and His Chief of Employees Has Moved On: Ex-Podcaster Could Be Gone Come January 2026, FBI Insiders Predict.”

Some deets about his probably successors:

(Bongino’s) departure, which has been rumored in current weeks, might have already been put into movement. In November, Mr. Bongino’s chief of workers, Jimmy Paul, was named the particular agent accountable for the Baltimore discipline workplace, after he served in his function with Mr. Bongino for under 9 months, in line with his public LinkedIn web page.

As Mr. Bongino’s chief of workers, Mr. Paul, a 17-year FBI veteran, was the FBI’s first-ever Indian American to carry that function, in line with a social media submit from the fraternal group American Malayalee Regulation Enforcement United. The FBI didn’t reply to questions from the Solar on whether or not a brand new chief of workers for Mr. Bongino had been named.

In the meantime, final week, the FBI’s new co-Deputy Director, Andrew Bailey – who raised eyebrows when he left his highly effective function as Missouri’s elected lawyer common for the FBI job – was a part of a U.S. delegation that joined the lawyer common, Pam Bondi, throughout her journey to Rome to attend the Palermo Protocol Convention on human trafficking, an individual near the assembly instructed the Solar. Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Division didn’t reply to questions on whether or not Mr. Bongino was initially slated to be a part of Ms. Bondi’s delegation.

In current weeks, Mr. Bailey was reportedly being thought-about because the substitute for the embattled FBI Director, Kash Patel. This weekend, Mr. Patel’s popularity took one more blow when he touted on social media {that a} suspect within the Brown College capturing had been detained, just for that suspect to be launched a short time later. Mr. Patel had made an identical announcement in the course of the early levels of the FBI’s investigation into the Charlie Kirk assassination, which he was additionally pressured to stroll again.

Ought to Mr. Bongino depart, Mr. Bailey is predicted to imagine Mr. Bongino’s function and grow to be the FBI’s deputy director, thought-about the bureau’s most demanding job, in January 2026.

Provided that Bongino’s whole agenda oriented across the form of backward-looking vendettas that Susie Wiles claims she acquired Trump to drop after the primary 90 days, it’s no shock he’s on his means out.

Will Patel final for much longer given he’s just about on the identical tip?

Keep tuned to this weblog for extra MAGA meltdowns as they happen.

UPDATE: Dan Bongino introduced he’s out as we speak:

I will likely be leaving my place with the FBI in January.
I need to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the chance to serve with objective.
Most significantly, I need to thanks, my fellow People, for the privilege to serve you.
God bless America, and…

— Dan Bongino (@FBIDDBongino) December 17, 2025