Transcript: Matt Gaetz Implosion Reveals Trump’s Power Isn’t Limitless

Ornstein: If I had to guess, my guess is that somebody—probably Susie Wiles, his incoming chief of staff—came to him with the FBI report on Matt Gaetz, and with an annotated copy of the House Ethics report because, of course, he’s not going to read this stuff, and basically said, You are in for a festering, burning pile of excrement if you continue forward with this guy. Don’t keep pushing him. There are plenty of others. Let him get out now before it keeps going on and on and endangers other nominees.

Sargent: I got to say, supporting this idea, the only thing that motivates Trump ever is self-interest. And it’s pretty clear that what’s going to develop here is people like Susie Wiles are going to develop techniques for appealing to his self-interest. One good example is this, right? Here’s what the FBI report says. This is going to pile down on you, Mr. President. It’s going to be a disaster for you. You are going to get beaten up. You, you, you.

Ornstein: You’ve raised an interesting point, Greg, which is that this may strengthen Susie Wiles a little bit. Remember that this nomination was cooked up on Trump’s plane when he sat with Boris Epshteyn, and Susie Wiles was in another part of the plane. It was announced before she had any input. She didn’t say anything afterward, smartly so, and watched as this fell apart. So Trump has to know that maybe he should take a little advice from her.