President Donald Trump is increasingly rattled after his fallout with Elon Musk, who recently turned against him and publicly pushed Vice President JD Vance as a possible replacement.
Elon Musk’s recent claim linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein has intensified the former president’s paranoia, according to journalist Michael Wolff. Photographer: Justin Merriman/Bloomberg(Bloomberg)
Speaking on The Daily Beast Podcast, journalist and best-selling Trump biographer Michael Wolff painted a picture of a president feeling cornered by people within his own camp. One of those people is Vance, the Ohio senator-turned-vice president.
Wolff pointed out that Trump never fully trusted Vance and viewed him as “an unlikely Republican” with most of his grassroots energy coming not from traditional conservatives but from “the tech bro community.”
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POTUS’ decision to name Vance as his running mate was not entirely his own it came partly under pressure from Musk. Now, “He will set up what we will see as a set of tests that Vance is going to have to endure and pass,” Wolff said. “(Vance has) got to profess his absolute loyalty to Trump, or he will just be marginalized within the administration.”
Vance on Musk’s war with Trump
Vance has already started trying to reassure Trump of his loyalty, saying during the Musk-Trump spat, “I’m the vice president to President Trump. My loyalties are always going to be with the president,” before adding, “I think it’s a huge mistake for (Musk) to go after the president like that.”
“Trump demands flattery on a constant basis,” Wolff said, suggesting that Vance will need to walk a very fine line if he wants to maintain Trump’s trust.
Following a claim Musk made on X that Trump’s name appeared in Jeffrey Epstein’s files, Wolff called it another “existential threat.”
“The Epstein stuff floats around Trump as a consistent threat, as a consistent silver bullet really,” Wolff said. “Musk could always bring back the threat/”
The White House Communications Director, Steven Chung, quickly hit back with, “He (Wolff) is an imbecile of the highest order, and his Trump Derangement Syndrome-addled brain has caused him to lead a miserable existence devoid of reality,” per Daily Beast.
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“Nothing he says is the truth and he resorts to outlandish falsehoods in order to stay relevant since Father Time has passed him by 20 years ago,” Chung added, calling Wolff “a blithering idiot who has been widely discredited due to his blatant lies and fabrications.”