President Donald Trump's aides are bracing for a bloodbath after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, and many already have a top target in mind, according to a new report.
As the losses piled up, a well-placed White House source told the Daily Mail, “If the boss is smart he’ll purge everyone tomorrow to save his legacy.”
Much of the anger is aimed at chief of staff Susie Wiles. A source told the outlet that Wiles had been promising a win right up to the end, telling people as recently as September that Republicans would take the midterms.
At weekly Thursday briefings, veteran GOP consultant Chris LaCivita, a key Wiles ally, assured the 80-year-old president that victory was his, the source said. On Tuesday morning, West Wing staffers were still talking about picking up seats in both chambers.
“Delusional,” the source said. “They were delusional right until the very end.”
At a D.C. bar near the White House, staffers traded rumors about who would survive the week and debated who should replace Wiles. Several wanted John McEntee, who ran Trump’s personnel operation in his first term, brought back. One joked that Trump should send Marine One to fetch him overnight.
But a clean purge may be easier said than done.
“The thing to remember is Susie took over the entire Trump apparatus,” a senior administration official said, noting that the RNC chair, the people running the PACs, Senate candidates and the Cabinet are all hers. “She’s the conductor of this orchestra. Anyone she would try to scapegoat would be a person she brought in.”
A former administration official instead took aim at Wiles’ deputy, James Blair, architect of the GOP’s mid-decade redistricting push, including the Indiana effort that collapsed when the state’s own Republican senators refused to pass it.
“Someone should reach out to James and ask him how he plans to redistrict his way out of this one, ‘Wonder Boy,’” the former official said.
Others blamed the Iran War, which has cost taxpayers at least $47 billion and pushed gas to $4.15 a gallon, and sources said that could cost Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth his job.
“Tonight would have looked very different without the Iran War,” one official said. “I believe you’ll ultimately see POTUS hold Hegseth accountable.”
Trump himself blamed Fox News and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Truth Social at around midnight.
But as the Daily Mail noted, if Trump concludes the war cost Republicans, “the blame has nowhere to go but his own desk.”