Le journaliste conservateur Andrew Egger, contributeur à The Bulwark — un média d’information et d’analyse fondé par d’éminents critiques conservateurs de Trump — a livré mardi une critique sévère du comportement récent du président Donald Trump, estimant que le Commandant en chef a « drifted further from reality » tandis que le programme de la Maison-Blanche s’enfonce dans un désordre croissant à mesure que davantage de personnes « wake up » aux mensonges que lui attribue Egger. Cette critique est notable venant d’une voix conservatrice, et reflète une tendance à l’examen critique de la part de médias de droite qui ont historiquement soutenu les administrations républicaines.

« It’s been stranger than usual, watching Donald Trump operate this week », a écrit Egger. « The president has long lived on a different planet from the rest of us — a world defined by his own personal information bubble of yes-men and online fans shouting his praises. But it’s rarely been so clear just how far Trump’s planet is from our reality. »

Egger a cité le conflit avec l’Iran comme exemple principal. « To hear the president tell it, America is forever on the verge of total victory », a-t-il écrit. « He is perpetually giving the mullahs one last, last, last chance to surrender before he turns their country into a parking lot — then inventing some pretext to call off the attack, pretending Iran has waved some secret white flag and is ready to make a deal. » Après des cycles répétés de ce schéma, Egger a observé que « Iran is barely bothering even to participate in this charade. »

Au cours du week-end, Trump a relancé ce cycle en menaçant de bombarder l’Iran avec « Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II », avant de revenir sur ses menaces en affirmant qu’un accord avait été conclu pour ouvrir le détroit d’Ormuz et démanteler le programme nucléaire iranien. « We’ve seen this movie before », a noté Egger. « What Trump is describing is essentially the memorandum of understanding that he signed back in June, which has been out of force for weeks. This time, however, his assertions are even more fanciful: No such deal exists, and no talks are ongoing. » L’Iran a publiquement réfuté les affirmations de Trump, ce qui, selon Egger, « led to another tantrum from Trump, who called Iran ‘unbelievably duplicitous’ in a post yesterday, but declined to resume his threats of devastating military action. »

Egger a également évoqué la controverse entourant le Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, qui a éclaboussé la procureure américaine Jeanine Pirro au cours de la semaine passée. Pirro, ancienne animatrice de Fox News nommée par Trump au poste de principale procureure fédérale à Washington, D.C., s’est retrouvée mêlée à cette affaire après que le gouvernement a engagé des poursuites contre l’ancien olympien David Hearn. Selon Egger, « After contriving a government-wide effort to lie that the pool’s lining had been damaged by vandals, including ex-Olympian David Hearn, the administration quietly dropped the charges and admitted what had been obvious all along: The lining had been faultily installed. » Cependant, cet aveu n’était pas conforme au récit de Trump. « Donald Trump spent yesterday spinning up a totally different tale: that Hearn was guilty, that a hostile judge in the case had been ‘really vicious,’ and that his handpicked D.C. prosecutor had simply wilted under the pressure », a écrit Egger, ajoutant que Trump avait confié aux journalistes que Pirro avait « choked » et « folded like an umbrella ».

« Pirro could never have done anything else », observe Egger. « She wasn’t going to risk getting herself disbarred over hallucinated damage to the Reflecting Pool. But her position in the White House now dangles by a thread. Trump dressed her down in a phone call Saturday, then summoned her to the White House yesterday evening for more recriminations. Whether Pirro will survive the trip back to our planet remains to be seen. »

« Every time you look, Trump seems to have drifted further from our reality », écrit Egger. « His poll numbers have never been worse, but don’t try to tell him that: ‘My REAL Polling Numbers,’ he insisted yesterday, ‘are the best they have ever been.’ » Egger poursuit en énumérant une série d’exemples tirés de la réalité différente de « Trump’s planet » : les publications constantes de contenu généré par IA, les republications d’articles de mars affirmant à quel point la guerre se passe bien, les vantardises mensongères sur son jeu de golf, et davantage.

« Trump has spent a decade trying to drag us along the path of his own suspended reality », conclut Egger, « but something has snapped; the real world has moved back onto its own course. Trump’s planet — where America is the hottest country in the world, Iran has been brought to its knees, vandals who destroyed the Reflecting Pool will be brought to justice, and he is extraordinarily popular and oh so good at golf — is so far from Earth it can no longer be seen with the naked eye. And as more and more people begin to wake up to this fact, the president is making no effort to reverse thrust. Already his world cannot be seen except through our most powerful telescopes; soon we may be unable to see him at all. »