Every single person who works for Donald Trump knew what they were signing up for when they accepted the job. Every White House staffer willingly, and in most cases enthusiastically, joined an effort to help Trump in his war on “political correctness,” an all-out attack on those who get lost in their “feewings” about the bad things in the world.
“I am so tired of this politically correct crap," Trump said at a campaign stop in South Carolina to rousing applause from his supporters. In a televised debate, Trump insisted “the big problem this country has is being politically correct . . . I don't, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time, either."
Those quotes have aged like milk. Turns out the most sensitive and easily triggered people in the country are currently occupying the White House.
The president whines about how badly he’s been treated at every opportunity. Most recently, Trump told graduates of the United States Coast Guard Academy — a group about to enter a military that Trump used deferments to avoid — that “no politician in history . . . has been treated worse or more unfairly” than he has. Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln were both too dead to voice their disagreement.
Trump’s pity party has reportedly made him into even more of a moody, petulant baby, and he blames staff for his scandal-rife, garbage-fire presidency. The poor treatment has shown the Trump team to be full of sensitive sorts, according to the Washington Post.
For many White House staffers, impromptu support groups of friends, confidants and acquaintances have materialized, calling and texting to check in, inquiring about their mental state and urging them to take care of themselves.
One Republican operative in frequent contact with White House officials described them as “going through the stages of grief.”
What’s with this obsession with self-care, leaning on support networks and fretting over the psychic wages of working for a terrible man to do his terrible bidding? Because it all sounds an awful lot like the stuff of special snowflakes. These are the people who wanted to Make America Great Again by making everyone who wasn’t them STFU.
A Daily Beast report details White House senior and communications staff avoiding press by “hiding in offices” — or what might better be described as retreating to their safe spaces. Politico interviewed “multiple White House officials” who say they “feel under siege,” though they are probably less under siege than the millions of immigrants, Muslims and people of color targeted by Trump policies these staffers are paid to advance. Mark Corallo, who worked for Attorney General John Ashcroft during Bush 43’s tenure, described Trump’s beleaguered staff as “hostages,” a word that has literally zero to do with what is happening here.
“We are kind of helpless,” one official reportedly told Politico, as if quitting, or not going to work for a racist, sexist tyrant in the first place, wasn’t an option. There are plenty of people who are helpless against Trump in this country, but not a single one of them has White House kitchen privileges.
The Washington Post points to what keeps these poor laborers locked in their stations, and it isn’t a guard by the door. Trump staffers are “sticking around purely for self-interest, hoping to juice their future earning potential.”
But pure greed isn't the only thing driving their decisions to stick with it. There seems to be some straight-up delusion in the mix as well.
“With news like this I’m beginning to wonder why Trump ran in the first place and if he really cares about the country,” a senior staffer, who must be trying out material for his standup special, told the Daily Beast. “I miss candidate Trump. Now he’s just a pathetic mess.”
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