An unnamed Republican operative close to the White House is quietly fuming about President Donald Trump's priorities after this week's midterm convention in Dallas, according to a new report.
"That's all he's talking about. The ballroom and the f---ing Reflecting Pool," the furious GOP operative, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Vanity Fair. "He just doesn't give a s--- anymore."
That GOP operative declined to attend the two-day event, which the Republican National Committee centered around celebrating Trump rather than debating a platform or nominating candidates.
The operative summed up Trump's talking points in a brutal takedown of his priorities.
"He doesn't care about Republicans," the operative said. "I don't think he really wants JD [Vance] or anyone else to win in 2028. That's why you're seeing him naming the Kennedy Center after him, naming an airport after him. It's all legacy vanity. That's all he cares about."
Vice President JD Vance's keynote speech had been widely read as an early audition for a 2028 presidential run, complete with chants of "48" from the crowd — a reference to the number of the president who would succeed Trump. But the operative's assessment suggests at least some Republicans close to the administration don't believe Trump is invested in that succession at all, let alone in his party's chances this November.
Despite Trump's Iran war — which he has called a "total and complete victory" — being arguably the defining act of his second term, no other speaker mentioned it during the event's two days. Trump himself brought it up only when he took the stage as the night's final speaker, engaging the crowd in a call-and-response about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Instead, much of Trump's own hour-and-a-half speech meandered through riffs on his $600 million White House ballroom project, insults aimed at Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton's appearance, and a fabricated attack on Texas Democratic candidate James Talarico's eating habits.
He also mused about renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself and rebranding the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The operative's remarks add to a growing chorus of Republican unease about Trump's midterm approach, which has also included pushback from allies like Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, who publicly criticized Trump's proposed $5,000 "dividend" checks to Americans as a "bread and circus" bribe unlikely to help the party's electoral chances.
