Insiders paint a picture of a White House gripped by panic amid President Donald Trump’s latest round of self-inflicted chaos.
The president’s allies came back from the weekend to find a spiraling situation, after negotiations with Iran collapsed and MAGA erupted over the president’s feud with the pope and his blasphemous post depicting himself as Jesus.
Sources in and around the White House provided memes to Politico portraying their current moods on the condition that they stayed anonymous.
The responses suggest things feel like they’re on fire. One administration official sent a GIF from the sitcom The IT Crowd, showing protagonist Moss frantically typing on a computer as a fire burns in the foreground.
Two people close to the White House shared the same meme of a glassy-eyed cartoon dog sitting at a table as fire engulfs the room, overlaid with the text: “It’s fine. Everything is fine.”
Meanwhile, a White House ally sent Burns a meme nodding to Trump’s once-frequent claim that his “personality” keeps the U.S. out of wars.
The White House ally appears to be invoking the president’s transformation from a non-interventionist who ran on a “no new wars” platform to the bloodthirsty warmonger he is today.
After the Iran peace talks faltered over the weekend, Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade “any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz,” and revived his threat to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure.
Another meme sent by a GOP operative close to the White House appeared to allude to the other mess Trump’s team had to grapple with on Monday: the president’s Truth Social post depicting himself as Jesus, which landed him in hot water with Catholics and even his MAGA base before he quietly deleted it.
“Time to flood the earth again,” the meme’s text reads, overlaid on a painting of an exasperated Jesus putting his head in his hand.
One person close to the White House appeared to suggest that while ultra-loyal administration officials publicly project confidence, there is private frustration behind the scenes—sharing a meme of a weary Jonah Hill in War Dogs overlaid with the text, “I guess bro.”
When reached for comment, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster told the Daily Beast in a statement, “No one cares about Politico’s collection of anonymously sourced-memes. The reality is that the entire Trump Administration stands behind the President who is working hard to lower taxes for working families, defend our borders, and make the world safe.”
She continued, “Instead of talking to their so-called anonymous sources, Politico should be talking to real Americans who are benefitting from President Trump’s agenda every single day.”
