Ben Smith

You know, we often overrate the power of our politicians.

I mean, I think that's sort of the perception of that first hundred days, the flooding the zone, the shock and awe.

you know, that magic, whatever it was, has just totally worn off.

And I think the Trump people to some degree persuaded themselves that they could shape reality, that they could, you know, particularly on X, just reshape people's perceptions of what was actually happening.

You know, it reminds me so much of the Bush years.

There was this famous line that,

you know that the bush administration gave i believe to like a gq reporter that they were um they didn't need that that the power of the united states was such you know the bush administration that they could reshape reality they didn't need to respond to it and i i do think that the best analogy right here is is for at least in my own experience covering politics is this just feels so much like 2006 when you had the iraq war which had been the

you know, the great initiative of the Bush administration, the fight for freedom, what was what made Bush popular and got him reelected in a certain way, had become so intensely unpopular.

And you had this advisor, Donald Rumsfeld, who became seen as the kind of central figure of the administration and who resigned the day after the midterms.

And I don't know if, you know, it's not really Trump's style to push people out, but I would think there's just enormous pressure on Stephen Miller right now.

I don't know if he resigns before the midterms, resigns after the midterms, sticks around.

But I think that's, to me, it's sort of that moment where the president put a lot of confidence in one advisor to steer national policy in a direction that's been politically disastrous.

yeah no i think the i mean the epstein files i mean one of the really great political mistakes i've ever seen was pam bondi and dan bongino and kash patel you know who i mean who i guess they sort of weren't in that on the joke like trump liked to talk about the epstein files like to kind of throw it as mud as enemies but also of course he knew that he'd been close friends with jeffrey epstein for years by the way no serious allegation that trump

ever committed a crime.

That's not, that is not in the files.

But the association with Epstein right now politically, it's just, it's like an oil spill.

Like you can't get it off you once it's on you.

And I mean, I can only imagine what Trump was thinking when his,

these trusted aides of his went and said, you know, we're gonna release all the emails.

This is gonna become the centerpiece of American law enforcement.