Back in April, President Trump did an interview with Reuters in which he said that he was already missing the lifestyle he enjoyed prior to assuming the office: “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” he said. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”
It wasn’t a surprise to his longtime friend, radio shock jock Howard Stern. On the February 1st airing of his program, Stern told his audience that he had warned Trump off of running for president:
“I really was sincere, I said, ‘Why would you want to be the president of the United States? You’re not going to be beloved, it’s going to be a f*cking nightmare in your life,” Stern recalled telling Trump in audio first flagged by CNN’s KFile.
“He stepped into a situation that’s really not a win for him,” he added. “He’s a 70 year-old guy, he’s got a great life, gorgeous wife, great kids, he’s got helicopters, airplanes, all the accoutrements of the great life… so now to step into this f*cking mess, and for what? There are people who are better suited for this kind of thing.
“He didn’t need this in his life.”
More importantly, Stern predicted that the presidency wouldn’t be a “healthy experience for Trump.”
“I know something about Donald Trump, he really does want to be loved,” Stern said. “He does want people to really love him. That drives him a lot. I think that he has a very sensitive ego and when you’re president of the United States, people are going to be very very critical.”
I thought about Stern’s comments as soon as I read the following report from Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair:
In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”
According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!”
I don’t think Trump ever thought he’d win a primary, let alone the nomination or the presidency. He wanted attention and he wanted to build his brand. Maybe he wanted to do the Russians a favor and torch Jeb Bush’s neoconservative presidential aspirations.
Before long, he might grow as pissed at the people who voted for him as the rest of the world is already feeling. “What kind of maniacs thought I’d be good at this job?” I can envision him saying.
