Inside Trump’s ‘Royal Court’
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What insights do we gain about the dynamics of Trump's White House?
Hi, my name is Dana.
I am a subscriber to the New York Times, but my husband isn't. And it would be really nice to be able to share a recipe or an article or compete with him in Wordle or Connections. Thank you. Dana, we heard you. Introducing the New York Times Family Subscription. One subscription, up to four separate logins for anyone in your life. Find out more at nytimes.com slash family.
In Trump's first term, there was a huge amount of daily reporting about how his White House was working. In part, this was because his White House was split between a series of factions, each of which was constantly leaking about the other factions.
How does Trump's decision-making differ from his first term?
The result was maybe not a very internally coherent or smoothly working White House, but there was a lot of information about what was happening and why and when. Trump's second term has been different. Trump's staff is selected much more for loyalty. The factional infighting is much less present. And the White House has been doing much more. The balance of coverage is about what they are actually doing in the world, as opposed to what they are doing or saying about each other. But particularly recently, around Minneapolis, around Venezuela, around a number of major stories, I've wondered... How are decisions being made here? What does the president know? Who tells him if something is going wrong? Who is wielding power and how?
And is it on his behalf or on their own? So I want to talk to some reporters who cover the Trump White House day in and day out and can give me a better picture of how it is functioning internally. Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer are staff writers at The Atlantic. Before that, they were at The Washington Post, where Parker won three Pulitzer Prizes. They have covered Trump for many years now, and they have also profiled many of the people around him. And so we're kind of uniquely placed to explain how something that at this point I think is less like a White House and more like a royal court works. is actually functioning day to day. How it is functioning for Donald Trump and how it's functioning for the rest of us.
As always, my email is reclineshow at nytimes.com.
What role does loyalty play in Trump's staffing choices?
Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
So I want to begin with Donald Trump's theory of what went wrong in his first term. You read of Trump in your big profile of him. He had realized in his exile that at nearly every turn in his first term, someone on his own team, Reince Priebus, John Kelly, James Mattis, Bill Barr, Gary Cohn, had blocked him. He needed smart people who would figure out how to let him do everything that he wanted to do in whatever way he wanted to do it. So let me begin here. To what degree is that actually true about Trump's first term, Ashley?
In his first term, you have to keep in mind, it's stunning to remember, but Donald Trump had never run for any office, any political office. He wakes up, he runs for president, and he wins. So he has this kind of ragtag team who has never operated at that level. some of whom had never been really in politics before. Remember Hope Hicks, you know, who played a huge role in his first term. The story, the lore was that when he told her, Hope, I'd like you to be part of my campaign, she said, which golf course, right? Is it a marketing campaign for Trump Doral or something at Mar-a-Lago? And so he ascends to the presidency and he suddenly has to fill all of these posts with with people he doesn't know, doesn't trust, many of whom don't like him, don't trust him, and, you know, privately say he was their 16th choice to be president.
And a lot of them view themselves as guardrails. They are there, you know, they would argue they are there to teach him how the presidency works and how democracy works and these norms.
How is Stephen Miller influencing Trump's policies?
But in a lot of ways, they really are followers thwarting what he's trying to do. In some instances, you have someone famously taking a piece of paper off of his desk so he can't sign something that they believe is problematic.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What insights do we gain about the dynamics of Trump's White House?
0:00–1:17
2
How does Trump's decision-making differ from his first term?
1:17–2:58
3
What role does loyalty play in Trump's staffing choices?
2:58–4:39
4
How is Stephen Miller influencing Trump's policies?
4:39–6:24
5
What impact does Susie Wiles have as Trump's chief of staff?
6:24–7:51
6
How do cabinet members navigate their roles in Trump's administration?
7:51–9:42
7
What are the implications of Trump's transactional approach to leadership?
9:42–11:20
8
How does Trump prioritize his time compared to past presidents?
11:20–1:13:13