The funniest meme about Donald Trump’s wildly inappropriate Jesus of Mar-a-Lago social media post came from an unexpected source – Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate and early godmother of the Maga movement.
Her riposte on X showed a robed Jesus, hand outstretched, saying, “Alright. That’s enough. Give me the phone.”
Surely that is the job of Susie Wiles, the US President’s chief of staff, whom Trump calls the most powerful woman in the world? Her nickname is the “Ice Maiden” thanks to her steely authority in the White House. She must be driven crazy by Trump’s late-night rantings on social media and his propensity to pick up the phone to random news reporters.
The President’s intemperate comments are terrifying friends at home and allies abroad. America’s reputation is being torched. But Wiles knows more than anyone there is no separating the needy Trump from his trusty comfort blanket – the buzzing phone that reassures him he is the most powerful man in the world.
In a revealing interview with Vanity Fair last year, Wiles claimed that Trump had an “alcoholic’s personality”, even though he’s teetotal. She recognised the symptoms from her father, a well-known American football broadcaster who drank (and relied on his sports megaphone).
“High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink,” Wiles explained. “And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.”
The latest beneficiary of Trump’s habit of speaking off the cuff was Mark Stone of Sky News, who scored a notable interview with the President just by calling him up. My favourite moment came when Stone asked about the “special relationship” and Trump replied “with who?”, confirming my view that it’s a purely British obsession which US Presidents feel obliged to indulge from time to time.
Trump, who seems increasingly disinhibited, can’t be bothered with such diplomatic niceties. Sir Keir Starmer is lucky Trump keeps saying he likes our PM before giving him an earful, policy-wise. And of course, it was a coup for Sky to get the President on the blower, but this is tempered by the fact that Trump has ratcheted up over 30 cell phone calls with reporters since the beginning of the Iran war.
Trump’s personal cell number has been ricocheting around the US press corps. They even swap advice about when to call him – in the evening while watching TV? After golf? In the sleepless early hours of the morning, when he loves to shitpost on Truth Social? In the morning, when he can be cranky?
I’d be surprised if the President’s compulsive phone habit isn’t one of the top jokes at the upcoming White House press correspondents’ dinner, which Trump has promised to attend after shunning the media-fest in his first term. “I feel like Frodo with the ring,” one Washington journalist with his cell number admitted. “I know it’s dangerous, but it keeps beckoning me.”
In a way, it’s refreshing to see Trump behave so openly after the years of virtual silence from Joe Biden, whose growing incapacity was concealed from the public by his White House team. Trump’s ready availability reminds me of an earlier right-wing populist, Enoch Powell MP, who used to list his number in the phone book on the grounds that he was a servant of the people and answerable to them.
In Trump’s case, however, it’s a sure sign the Iran war – and more generally, his presidency – is going badly. He is desperate for the affirmation his cell phone brings. This has been true since the 80s, when the young property developer was hungry for publicity and used to ring up newspapers to drop juicy tidbits about himself under the pseudonym John Barron (a name he’s clearly fond of, viz son Barron).
On 17 March, Trump said about Iran: “We’re way ahead of schedule.” On 24 March: “We’ve won this. The war has been won.” On 26 March: “Won’t be long… We had to take a little detour.” On 6 April: “We won, OK? They are militarily defeated.” It’s as if he believes he can make this true by saying the same thing over and over again.
There are fears Trump has been using his phone to manipulate the markets, timing his comments to bring relief to oil prices and send share prices back up – possibly helping insiders to make a fast buck – before the reality of the Iran quagmire tempers expectations again. There may be something in this. But I think the explanation lies in his narcissism. Even Trump admitted, following Wiles’s Vanity Fair interview, that he had a “possessive personality”.
Sadly, Wiles shared the news last month that she is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Trump claimed she would be “virtually available full-time at the White House” but she can’t be on-hand 24/7 to keep him in line. We must all wish for Wiles’s speedy recovery. The fate of America rests with her.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting
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