Trump’s Monday has been devastating as the Midterms are less than one month away. It’s gone from one embarrassment to the next disaster for him.
Dan Driscoll gave his first interview since quitting the Pentagon, and he describes a Pete Hegseth who purges generals and blows up at the people trying to help him. Trump spent Monday blocking another news outlet from Air Force One, three days before a judge hears whether any of this is legal. Thom Tillis went on daytime TV and warned the president, without smiling, that he has his number too. And Barack Obama is heading to Detroit while Trump runs a 17-state scramble and tells crowds what he plans to do to Democrats. There are 29 days until the midterms.
HEGSETH’S PENTAGON IS FALLING APART AND THE ARMY SECRETARY JUST CONFIRMED IT
The man who ran the Army until September has broken his silence, and he describes a Defense Department being torn apart by the man in charge of it.
Dan Driscoll was the youngest Army secretary ever confirmed. He’s an Iraq War veteran, a tech investor and a close friend of JD Vance from Yale Law School. He came in to modernize the force and get soldiers the equipment a modern battlefield requires. He lasted until late August. He’s one of a long line of senior officials gone since Hegseth took over, a purge so big it reportedly alarmed even Trump.
His first real clash with Hegseth came from trying to help. Early on, Driscoll offered what he saw as a gift: his friendship with the vice president, which he thought could help the Pentagon get what it needed from the White House. According to Rolling Stone, Hegseth “blew up at him” and told Driscoll to go through his office before contacting the White House. A direct line to the vice president, and Hegseth treated it as a threat.
The firings ended it. Hegseth kept removing top generals and admirals, and eventually got to Gen. Randy George and Gen. Christopher Donahue, the two officers Driscoll had been working with on modernization. In late August, Driscoll went to the Oval Office and told Trump he was resigning because Hegseth had fired everyone working on the thing he came to do.
He was careful in the interview, and that makes it worse. “Once he makes a decision, there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have to like it,” he said. “If you polled us, we probably agreed on more than 50 percent of things. What’s been reported is all the things we disagree on.” His job, he said, was “to advocate as hard as I could for leaders who I thought were good.” He left when that stopped working.
Meanwhile, Hegseth gathered the generals last week to tell them the free press is “fundamentally anti-American” and “treason, actually.” He’s scrapping psychological screening for troops, created an Office of Religious Affairs that reports to him, and handed a weapons project to Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich, then had to tell the room to applaud. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called him one of the “poster children for men and women who should never have the authority they’ve been granted” and wants Trump to fire him.
The Pentagon didn’t rebut any of it. Chief spokesman Sean Parnell called Rolling Stone “a fake news rag regurgitating months-old false narratives in an attempt to stay relevant to their ever-dwindling audience.” He didn’t dispute the firings, the blowup or the resignation.
TRUMP BLOCKS POLITICO FROM AIR FORCE ONE
On Monday, Trump kept another news outlet off his plane, three days before a federal judge decides whether he’s allowed to do any of this.
Politico was scheduled to fly with Trump to Nebraska as part of the out-of-town pool, the small rotating group of reporters who travel with the president. The White House cut them. A spokesperson confirmed it and said Politico can attend presidential events, but flying on Air Force One is a privilege, not a right.
It’s a workaround. On September 18, Trump announced he was banning Politico, CNN and MS NOW from the White House, and the next morning their reporters had their passes taken at security. The outlets sued over First and Fifth Amendment violations. Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered their access restored and said they’d likely win. Since then, Trump has been looking for places the order doesn’t reach. He’s repeatedly blocked CNN from traveling when the network was up in the rotation, and now he’s done the same to Politico.
His lawyers are telling the court the First Amendment doesn’t apply in certain presidential spaces, naming the Oval Office and Air Force One. The Justice Department is also defending the ban on national security grounds. When Trump announced it himself, he didn’t mention national security. He said he didn’t like the coverage.
The hearing is Thursday. The three outlets will ask Kelly for a preliminary injunction protecting their access while the case goes on.
Until then, Trump keeps picking which reporters get on the plane, and the plane is where presidents answer questions.
TILLIS WARNS TRUMP THAT HE HAS HIS NUMBER TOO
Thom Tillis went on The View on Monday and told the president, without a hint of a smile, that doxxing works both ways.
Sunny Hostin asked about the private texts in his book. “You claim to have written him denying his account and saying, ‘I would have immediately told you to go blank yourself’ and ‘I don’t take this BS from anyone, including you, Mr. President,’” she said. “Did you hear back from him?” Tillis said they’ve talked and texted several times since. Ana Navarro cut in: “He’s gonna give your phone away after this!”
Tillis didn’t laugh. “With all due respect, I have his number, too,” he said. The panel laughed nervously, and the audience applauded.
Everyone knew what he meant. On Saturday, Trump posted Sen. Tom Cotton’s personal cell number on Truth Social because Cotton opposes permanent daylight saving time, and Cotton’s phone got flooded so badly that reporters couldn’t leave a voicemail. Part of Trump’s pitch for the bill: “The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments.”
Cotton isn’t backing down. “Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” he said. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
Tillis still calls Trump “a great political force.” He isn’t a never-Trumper. He voted for every one of Trump’s cabinet picks and voted not to convict him at impeachment.
Now he’s warning the president on daytime TV that two people can play this game.
OBAMA HEADS TO MICHIGAN WHILE TRUMP BEGS FOR VOTES
Barack Obama is going to Detroit on October 24, the day Michigan’s early in-person voting opens.
He’ll campaign with Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and governor nominee Jocelyn Benson. El-Sayed announced it himself. “It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24,” he wrote. “Get. Ready.” El-Sayed faces Mike Rogers, who has Trump’s “complete and total” endorsement, in a race that could decide the Senate.
Obama is doing more than one rally. He’s headlining a Senate campaign committee fundraiser this week and has already recorded ads for Democratic candidates. An NBC poll last month found 43 percent of registered voters, including 77 percent of Democrats, are more likely to back a candidate Obama endorses.
Trump is spending October on a blitz across 17 states. This past week took him to Texas, Alabama and Ohio, and on Monday to Nebraska, a state he won by nearly 20 points. None of those are swing states. Meanwhile, Republicans in truly competitive races keep their distance from him.
He’s also spending your money on it. Trump approved $20 million in taxpayer-funded ads praising himself, running on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MS NOW, Fox News and Newsmax. And he’s still promising $5,000 to every adult if Republicans hold both chambers, which critics have called a bribe for votes since he first floated it.
Then there’s how he closed in Ohio on Saturday, after about two minutes on aspirin. “Just get out and vote,” Trump said. “If you do that, we’re going to win, and we’re going to win big. And we’re going to shove it up their a–.”
Twenty-nine days out, one side is sending its most popular surrogate into a battleground as early voting starts. The other is in a red state talking about aspirin.
