The MAGA Base Is Turning on Trump

President Trump's trusted and loyal chief of staff, Susie Wiles, always known as the quiet person who got everything done, has hit the news big time with a series of interviews she did with Vanity Fair, where she gave strikingly honest assessments of her colleagues, some of Trump's recent actions and his motivations. It made a big impact - some of it wasn't news, or at least shouldn't have been. But some of it was important background to the administration's political strategy and the White House infighting and debate. Let's discuss.

By all accounts, the MAGA faithful are starting to despair at the disconnect between what candidate Donald Trump promised during his election campaign, and what President Trump is actually delivering. Whether it comes to affordability, the Epstein Files, Artificial Intelligence and more - Trump is seen as aligning with billionaires and tech oligarchs, not the ordinary people. And, according to a series of articles in the Washington Post today, he's simply not listening to the feedback, which could mean nothing is going to improve much from this point forward. Let's discuss.

In an interview a few days ago, Elon Musk - normally the purveyor of hubris and inflated promises - said that DOGE had been "a little bit" successful. This was clearly the closest to reality he could bring himself to admit in public, but the fact he went on to say that he wouldn't do it if he had his time again really tells the story. So that moment of self-reflection is worth noting. But then you have to note how he remains of the view that his vision for the world must be indulged by governments worldwide, and he will seek to attack or undermine those who disagree. Arguably, that's entirely the improvement we might have hoped for from Elon Musk 'spending more time on his businesses'. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday December 12th 2025: President Trump's Navy seizes an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan crude which highlights what may be the real reason why he won't stop until Maduro is gone; A leaked briefing paints in vivid colours the reality that if the US ends up in a shooting war with China, America itself expects to lose, in spite of all its expensive weapons; And while some are excited that the Epstein files are supposed to be released next week, there are two good reasons to presume it's going to be yet another dud.

One of the big stories of 2025 has been the plummeting rates of foreign tourists entering the United States. Whether because President Trump has insulted their countries, or because they just don't fancy visiting the country the US has become - people are staying away in droves. Now, as though that isn't nearly bad enough, the Trump administration seems determined to impose even more onerous and intrusive tests on the way in - with the possibility that if you have the "wrong opinions" about the Dear Leader, you might not be let in at all. Let's discuss.

European leaders and Ukraine's President Zelensky have been meeting yet again to agree a way forward in the face of Trump's pressure for Ukraine to sign a variation on its one-sided deal with Putin's Russia. And STILL, after Trump's dismissive insults towards them all has been codified as official US security policy - they are keeping up the pretence that the US is still Europe's biggest ally. Why? When do we re-enter a world where public figures talk in a relatively frank way about how they see the world, and what their objectives are? Let's discuss.

The new Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, established a great rapport with President Trump right from the start - or so it seemed. But when she immediately lined up with Trump to draw a hard line with Xi Jinping's China, she turned around and discovered he wasn't there. Trump's America is interested, according to it's recent National Security Strategy (and its observed behaviour) in money. Not geopolitics. Not values. Money. Japan, having attracted the fury of Beijing, is suddenly wondering if its best ally is no longer an ally at all. And even the uncertainty throws the stability of Southeast Asia into a doubt it hasn't seen for a very long time. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday December 5th 2025 - The US launches its new security strategy, and it doesn't mince words in laying out the real thinking behind Trump's bizarre foreign policy. The question is - will Europeans actually do anything about the admission that Trump aims to replace them all with far-right parties, that he aims to hand Ukraine to Russia, or any of the rest of it - or will they keep pretending it's business-as-usual? Also, the Ukraine Russia peace negotiations fizzle as they were always going to, and the EU rankles Trump's America by fining Elon Musk's Twitter. Also, I note a true unsung hero, and talk about a skunk and a raccoon.

President Trump assumed that waving a big stick in front of Venzuela's Nicolas Maduro would result in him agreeing to step down, since the US has all of its economic and military might to bring to bear. But Maduro has called his bluff, and suddenly Trump is finding that the ground is disappearing under his feet. The attacks against boats are attracting talk of war crimes. Congress is starting to get seriously unhappy. And the latest revelation about a second strike made just to kill survivors - a war crime in any similar context - has the administration changing its story daily as it slowly realises that consequences are coming. Let's discuss.

NATO is realising that the hybrid warfare being waged against it by Russia, via sabotage, airspace incursions, disinformation and hacking attacks, are too serious to continue to be shrugged off. So today one of NATO's top military leaders put it out there that NATO should be taking more aggressive and proactive action, and that such action would count as a defensive measure in the current situation. This matches the threat - but it suffers the one drawback that the lynchpin member of NATO is President Trump's United States. And Trump is very obviously a Putin ally. So could NATO adopt such a stance - or would it simply get vetoed?