New York Times editorial board member, Michelle Cottle, released a scathing op-ed highlighting the president's tendency to give oxygen to his adversaries that no one else would be paying attention to otherwise.
In a piece relating the White House to a "three-ring" circus, Cottle called the president a "farce" for his new war with Anthony Scaramucci.
As the president tweeted, no one had heard of Scaramucci until Trump hired him and former chief-of-staff John Kelly fired him after only 11 days.
"President Trump has a well-earned reputation as congenitally dishonest and occasionally disconnected from reality. But let's give him credit when he is dead-on in an assessment, no matter how puerile," wrote Cottle. Nothing could prove it better than the Scaramucci feud.
She explained that Trump is right; no one would know Scaramucci if it weren't for Trump. Now his latest Twitter-war has resulted in an angry investor who is starting a super PAC to run ads against Trump in critical swing states.
"I can take five points off of him," Scaramucci said in an interview this week.
Trump couldn't even win the popular vote in 2016; five points will kill any chance at reelection in 2020.
"In some ways, Mr. Scaramucci's trajectory captures the essence of the entire Trump era," Cottle wrote. "A creature of Wall Street, the Mooch was a politically fickle, inexperienced operator who basically stumbled onto the Trump campaign. After failing to get approved for one White House job (as liaison to the business community), he found himself catapulted into an even more prominent post — communications director — prompting the press secretary, Sean Spicer, to resign. He demonstrated his incompetence (with admittedly impressive alacrity), left on bad terms with the boss and is now looking to parlay the whole experience into a gaudy public spectacle."
The worst part, however, was the humiliation of lasting just 11 days and because the president runs his White House like a reality TV show, Cottle noted that Scaramucci's "quasi-celebrity will drag on indefinitely."
"It is simultaneously diverting and unsettling to ponder how this phenomenon will play out with the Trump alumni," Cottle continued. "Who will have staying power? In what capacity? To put it gently, this president is not known for attracting the best and brightest — or the most ethical. His campaign pledge to hire all the 'best people' has become a political joke on par with Infrastructure Week, 'very stable genius' and Greenland. Multiple members of his inner circle have run into legal troubles. Top officials have left trailing thick clouds of scandal. Some aides, like the Mooch and Omarosa Manigault Newman, were undone by their own absurdity. Others have trashed their credibility so thoroughly — Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway leap to mind — it's hard to imagine them finding a second act."
She anticipated they would host podcasts and radio shows just like Scaramucci and Sebastian Gorka. They'll charge for speeches like Reince Priebus and Donald Trump Jr. and peddle their books to eager Trump followers.
Huckabee Sanders is the first of the lot to eye her own political career though rumors are that Donald Trump Jr. is trying to find a state he can call home enough to run for his own elected office.
"And, of course, they will join reality shows, à la Mr. Spicer, who has signed on to appear on "Dancing With the Stars" — over the objections of the show's host, Tom Bergeron," Cottle predicted. "It will be a fitting legacy if America's first reality TV president winds up flooding the nation with legions of B-list celebrities and wannabe influencers. The possibilities really are endless — and we owe them all to Mr. Trump."