While Americans are dealing with higher gas prices, high grocery prices and less healthcare, President Donald Trump is living his best life, says Jonathan Swan, co-author of the new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, with fellow New York Times writer Maggie Haberman.
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“[In his first term], there was always a feeling he felt under siege,” Swan told John Dickerson, host of Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast. “He was under investigation. He was reactive. He was surrounded by people who — whatever you think about Donald Trump, he’s not stupid when it comes to reading people — he understood that many of them had contempt for him and thought that he was dangerous and whatever. So I think it was just generally a stressful, unpleasant experience. This time around, he comes in with a sweeping immunity decision from the Supreme Court and with, especially last year, total command over his own party.”
Swan pointed out that never has he seen a president command his own party and force them to do things they don’t want to do like Trump did last year.
“We haven’t seen that before,” said Swan. “He’s richer than he’s ever been. His family’s making just inordinate sums of money from the presidency. He’s using power in the ways that he wants to without much pushback. He’s entirely surrounded by flatterers. He’s basically housebound. He doesn’t really travel around. He’s not really doing events. He goes from people flattering him in the Oval Office to people on the Mar-a-Lago patio.”
This, said Swan, leaves an extremely wealthy narcissist sitting very comfortably in his Mar-a-Lago home while the rest of America pays out an extra $600 on expenses due to Trump-induced inflation in the grocery stores and at the pump.
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“He’s sitting there with his iPad playing Pavarotti and James Brown and having people come up to the table telling him he’s the greatest president ever, a world historic figure, all the rest of it. What’s not to like?” Swan told Dickerson. “He’s got a new jet from the Qataris. Now it’s never enough for Donald Trump, so I don’t think he’s in a state of constant bliss. He’s still frustrated and gets angry about stuff and whatever. But I think generally speaking, for someone who’s completely addicted to both power and attention, this is as close to a dose of pure crack as you can get. The highest purity crack that could possibly be on offer in the US system.”
But while Trump is getting richer many middle-class voters are not. American voters are facing a looming financial crisis as food and fuel prices continue to rise and wages remain stagnant. And they’re increasingly turning to high-interest-rate credit cards and payday loans with blazingly-high interest rates just to pay for family food.
This likely explains Trump’s disastrous poll numbers in almost every dynamic, including sometime and occasional voters, Latinos and even working-class white voters, his prime base.
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