{"id":30,"date":"2025-09-15T16:43:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T16:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2025-10-18T14:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T14:55:11","slug":"skedaddle-gold-leaf-mckinley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"Skedaddle! Gold leaf! McKinley!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Chris Cillizza<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>(AG Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump\/ Getty Images\/ Andrew Harnik)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump gathered his Cabinet together on Tuesday for a suck-up fest update on how things are going in his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was weird. Because these public Cabinet meetings are more performance than policy. It\u2019s Trump as master of ceremonies with his underlings all trying to one-up each other in terms of the praise they lavish on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BTW, the clear winner in that category? EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Here\u2019s a snippet of what he had to say: \u201cGod bless America because at the end of the day, President Trump is here, JD Vance is here and the greatest cabinet ever assembled to deliver that much needed and highly demanded accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greatest Cabinet ever assembled!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I decided to go through the full transcript of the Cabinet meeting \u2014 line by line. The lines from Trump you HAVE to see are below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a paywalled post. I am the only political reporter forensically examining what Trump says \u2014 and it takes time!<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Not Ready to become a full subscriber?  Here’s a way to access just this one article and support the work I’m doing for less than $1.  No commitments, not gimmicks.  Just the story you want.  <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To the lines!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. \u201cWe’ve had a tremendous six months, and we’ve had a tremendous two weeks, which now is, I guess, three weeks, and we have a tremendous group of people here that have done a great, unified, beautiful job.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    He has NOT had a \u201ctremendous\u201d six months \u2014 tariffs anyone? \u2014 but he <\/a>has<\/a><\/em> had a very good last two weeks<\/a>. And away we go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. \u201cThere’s never been a wave like this outside of the breaking of a dam. This was almost a wave that was ended up being 30-feet high more, actually.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Trump is talking about the flooding in the Texas Hill Country. Even the natural disasters in his presidency are record-setting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. \u201cNow, with a dam, you can understand it, but this approached almost with that speed. When you see a dam break, it’s not a pretty sight. It wipes out everything, and this is the kind of thing that built up so fast. And it’s happened two or three times before over the years, but not to this extent.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Donald Trump, dam expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        1. \u201cI think you’ve been reading a lot about a terrible topic when you talk about financial after this, but we have a big country and we’ve been doing very well.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          \u201cTalk about financial.\u201d Gets me every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \n
          1. \u201cAnd I — I hear the new line is death. Oh, it’s death. Everyone’s going to die. It has nothing to do with death.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            I mean, everyone is<\/em> going to die. (He\u2019s talking about Democratic attacks on the Medicaid cuts contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \n
            1. \u201cThe whole world was dumped into our country, from prisons, from gangs, from mental institutions. We have many people walking the streets, walking in areas that we don’t know anything about that came out of insane asylums.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              What are these \u201careas that we don\u2019t know anything about\u201d? More importantly: Where are they???<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \n
              1. \u201cJimmy Carter was unfortunate for Jimmy Carter.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
                \"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                  \n
                1. \u201cI mean, those machines flew for 37 straight hours. They didn’t stop. They went skedaddle. You know the word skedaddle? It means skedaddle. They dropped the bombs and they — somebody said skedaddle, let’s get the hell out of here.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                  No notes. Perfect as is. Change nothing. (He is talking about the American bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear sites.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    \n
                  1. \u201cBut the equipment is so good, it’s stealth. Way up in the air. And it was stealth. And they went through that. And they sort of — by the time they found out they were there, they were already gone. That was the word skedaddle. Get the hell out of here\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                    You know that word \u201cskedaddle,\u201d right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      \n
                    1. \u201cI was taking every — and I said, every screw, every bolt, every nail, you take out of there. And Milley said, I remember one time, \u2018Sir, we’re better off leaving the equipment.\u2019 \u2018Why?\u2019 \u2018Well, it’s cheaper. I said, \u2018Cheaper? You mean it’s cheaper to leave a $150 million airplane rather than flying it into Pakistan or India or someplace? Or just flying it straight home, it’s cheap?\u2019 \u2018Yes, sir.\u2019 That’s when I knew he was an idiot.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                      \u201cSir\u201d alert<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        \n
                      1. \u201cSo, you know, we’ve done a great job. And I think people are really starting to see it. They’re starting to appreciate it.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                        Me, when talking to people about how my wife and I are raising my kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          \n
                        1. \u201cAnd one of the pilots said, you know, we were a little concerned because when we got out, we were told that on television they were reporting that we may have missed our targets. Sir, we hit every target. That’s what I do for a living. We hit every target.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                          \u201cSir\u201d alert<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            \n
                          1. \u201cYou know, one of the things we did with the attack is that — you asked that question. I didn’t mean to be rude, but I’m in a rude because I’m looking at some of these crooked people up here. So, I’m rude. But your question was asked very nicely.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                            Remember that Trump believes \u2014 or at least says<\/em> he believes \u2014 that the media should be totally compliant, reporting on only his version of reality. So when he says that a reporter asked a \u201cnice\u201d question, it means that the question is one he likes. A \u201crude\u201d reporter is someone who doesn\u2019t follow the Trump-approved script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              \n
                            1. \u201cBut if you look at our Patriots, if you look at our Tomahawks, if you look at our — well, what we do with tanks is you wouldn’t want to be driving a tank. You would feel nice and secure.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                              I mean this genuinely: WTF?!?!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                \n
                              1. \u201cWe get — we get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all of the time but it turns out to be meaningless.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
                                \"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
                                  \n
                                1. \u201cWe had deficits with everybody for years, for — for decades, and we were, like, this big monolith that made bad deals with everybody\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                  Monolith, you say?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    \n
                                  1. \u201cI mean, South Korea is making a lot of money, and they’re very good — they’re very good.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                    Is South Korea\u2019s tourist board paying attention? \u201cSouth Korea: We\u2019re very good\u201d is a pretty catchy slogan\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      \n
                                    1. \u201cI think he’s terrible and I think — we — I call him too late, T-O-O, too late, like Too Tall Jones for the Dallas Cowboys, right? Too late. He’s always late.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                      Trump is talking about Fed Chair Jerome Powell here. Also, Ed \u201cToo Tall\u201d Jones was 6\u20199\u201d. And he last played in the NFL in 1989. ALL of Trump\u2019s cultural references are stuck in the \u201880s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        \n
                                      1. \u201cAre you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things — we — and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                        A reporter asked about Epstein. Trump\u2019s mood turned immediately sour. It\u2019s clear he does not want to talk any more about Epstein. But, the MAGA influencer world doesn\u2019t want to stop<\/em> talking about it. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                          \n
                                        1. \u201cI mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on how to — Epstein at a time like this, where we’re having some of the greatest success and — and also tragedy with what happened in Texas.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                          Notice that Trump is most annoyed that the Epstein talk is getting in the way of his political wins\u2026and, oh, yeah the flood tragedy in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                            \n
                                          1. \u201cMcKinley, I guess, more than anybody by — he was the tariff king but he was very, very strong. It’s sort of sad. He — he made a fortune for this country, became very rich, and then Teddy Roosevelt went out and — the vice president, and he spent the money. And they said Roosevelt was a great president. And let’s say he was a great president, but the money was made by McKinley with tariffs\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                            In 2022, a panel of presidential historians<\/a> rated McKinley as the 22nd best president ever. Teddy Roosevelt was ranked 4th overall. Trump? Third worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                              \n
                                            1. \u201cSo the letters I sent out are — we have made some — we can make a lot more deals, it’s just too time consuming.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                              So many deals! So little time to make them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                \n
                                              1. \u201cThe dollar — you ever heard the expression dollar is king. The dollar is king.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                But \u2014 and stay with me here \u2014 what if the dollar isn\u2019t king?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                  \n
                                                1. \u201cJust so you know, when I got in everyone said oh, eggs — eggs were going through the roof. That was the — I was in for about four days and they started screaming at me about eggs. I said that’s Biden’s problem. I didn’t know about eggs. But eggs went up about five times\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                  The price of eggs has dropped rapidly since the spring. This is largely ascribed to waning concerns about bird flu<\/a>, not policies put in place by Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                  \"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
                                                    \n
                                                  1. \u201cThey spent money like — they used to use the term drunken sailors but I won’t use that term although it is very descriptive. I won’t use that term. I refuse to use it\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                    [narrator voice] He just used it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                      \n
                                                    1. \u201cAnd wind is a very expensive form of energy. It’s too bad for your beautiful surroundings, the plains and the valleys. And the birds are dying all over the place. You know, the whole thing is a disaster.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                      He hates windmills so, so much.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                        \n
                                                      1. \u201cAnd if you own a house that’s inside of a windmill, your house is worth less than half and people — and you hear noises. And interestingly in New England, you probably read where for 50 years, they had two whales washed up, 50 years. And last summer, they had 14 washed up.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                        If you own a house inside <\/em>of a windmill then, well, you live in a windmill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                          \n
                                                        1. \u201cA friend of mine is a very successful guy. He went back to see his mother in Minnesota. He hadn’t seen her in a long time, and he wasn’t back for 10 years, which isn’t a nice story. I mean, you don’t see your mother for 10 years. She’s got some difficulties, which I know the guy, he does have some difficulties. He’s very successful, but probably not the nicest person. It was actually longer than 10 years. But he went back and he told me he wanted to go and look at the valley. There’s a valley in Minnesota that he thought was so beautiful. I hadn’t seen it in a long time.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                          This is a story about windmills \u2014 and how they get left to rust and rot after people are done with them. You would not know ANY of that from this lead-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                            \n
                                                          1. \u201cHe was actually — do you ever see Jon Lovitz, the liar? Where he goes, yeah, yeah, I went to Harvard. That’s right. I’m just — this was Schumer. He goes, yeah, yeah, it’s Trump’s fault. That’s right, it’s Trump.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                            Trump is referencing a \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d skit where Jon Lovitz played a guy named Tommy Flanagan<\/a> aka the Pathological Liar. The skit was popular in the mid- 1980s. As I said above: All of Trump\u2019s cultural references are stuck in the 1980s.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                              \n
                                                            1. \u201cI don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                              Trump\u2019s response to a question about who ordered the pause on the delivery of U.S. military equipment to Ukraine last week. Paging Pete Hegseth<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                \n
                                                              1. \u201cThis is a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion, other than he’s got a good line of bullshit.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                No, Trump isn\u2019t talking about himself. This is his analysis of Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                  \n
                                                                1. \u201cYou know, I love New York for a long time.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                  <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                    \n
                                                                  1. \u201cWe’re going to do something for New York. I can’t tell you what yet. But we’re going to make New York great again.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                    Uh\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                      \n
                                                                    1. \u201cWe’re right now riding the hottest country. We all — and you can all be proud of it. We’re in the hottest country. This is the hottest country in the world.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                        \n
                                                                      1. \u201cMaybe just in closing, you know, we spend a lot of time, effort, very little money, on this room. This is called the Cabinet Room. It’s been here for a long time. And it had some pictures that were not many of them and not very good ones. And I actually spent time in the vaults. The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork. And I picked it all myself. And I’m very proud of it. That’s Andrew Jackson, the great Andrew Jackson. That’s a gentleman named — and we call him President Polk, he was sort of a real estate guy. He was — people don’t realize he was one of — he was a one-termer but he was a very good president. But and I’m not sure I should be doing this, he actually gave us the State of California.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                        Just incredible stuff. I think my favorite part of this riff is: \u201cThat’s a gentleman named — and we call him President Polk, he was sort of a real estate guy.\u201d But every time I re-read it I find something else that makes me laugh. Truly a rich text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                          \n
                                                                        1. \u201cAnd then you have — this is very exciting to me — he was not a Republican, to put it mildly, but he was, you know — it was a — four-termer. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And if you notice, there are a lot of ramps outside, where you have ramp — you’ll say it’s an unusual place for a ramp. It was because of him. He was wheelchair-bound. But he was an amazing man.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                          I cannot wait for the Trump-authored biography of FDR. That is going to be a banger!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                            \n
                                                                          1. \u201cAnd I love the frame of those pictures. Look at those frames, you know? I’m a frame person. Sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                            \u201cI\u2019m a frame person.\u201d Same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                              \n
                                                                            1. \u201cYou see the top line moldings, and the only question is do you gold leaf it? Because you can’t paint it. If you paint it, it won’t look good because they have never found a paint that looks like gold. You see that in the Oval Office. They’ve tried for years and years. Somebody could become very wealthy — but they never found a paint that looks like gold. So painting it is easy but it won’t look right. And the question is whether or not we should gold leaf it.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                              To gold leaf it or not to gold leaf it, that is the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                \n
                                                                              1. \u201cI told you that went, that came back in — in 1913, that came back and lived well for a while and then you had the Great Depression. And then later they brought — they tried to bring back tariffs. But the whole thing was, you know, this was after the Depression.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                His understanding of the Great Depressions is truly awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                  \n
                                                                                1. \u201cWhen people come into the Oval from the biggest people in the world, presidents, prime ministers, Kings, Queens, one case, at least Queens and the biggest business people in the world, they walk into that office and they always say, they say there’s no place like this in the whole world in terms of the power. And I mean, it’s beautiful at all. But there are other beautiful offices. You have businessmen that have offices that are, you know full floors of office buildings, floor to ceiling glass, and they walk in there and they say, there’s no place like this anywhere in the world. There’s no place. And you know, it’s what it represents, maybe more than the physicality of the room itself.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                  Poetry. Yeah, this feels like a good place to end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                                                                  By Chris Cillizza July 9 (AG Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump\/ Getty Images\/ Andrew Harnik) President Donald Trump gathered his Cabinet together on Tuesday for a suck-up fest update on how things are going in his administration. It was weird. Because these public Cabinet meetings are more performance than policy. It\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ledewire_sync_enabled":true,"_ledewire_price_cents":50,"_ledewire_teaser":"President Donald Trump gathered his Cabinet together on Tuesday for a\u00a0suck-up fest\u00a0update on how things are going in his administration.\r\n\r\nIt was weird. Because these public Cabinet meetings are more performance than policy. It\u2019s Trump as master of ceremonies with his underlings all trying to one-up each other in terms of the praise they lavish on him.\r\n\r\nBTW, the clear winner in that category? EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Here\u2019s a snippet of what he had to say: \u201cGod bless America because at the end of the day, President Trump is here, JD Vance is here and the greatest cabinet ever assembled to deliver that much needed and highly demanded accountability.\u201d\r\n\r\nGreatest Cabinet ever assembled!","_ledewire_use_excerpt":true,"_ledewire_paywall_enabled":true,"_ledewire_content_id":"1e7ff77a-51b9-47e6-9cc6-d5f9f1427614","_ledewire_sync_status":"synced","_ledewire_last_sync":"2025-10-18 14:55:13","_ledewire_error_message":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speech-analysis"],"ledewire_meta":{"sync_enabled":"1","price_cents":"50","teaser":"President Donald Trump gathered his Cabinet together on Tuesday for a\u00a0suck-up fest\u00a0update on how things are going in his administration.\r\n\r\nIt was weird. Because these public Cabinet meetings are more performance than policy. It\u2019s Trump as master of ceremonies with his underlings all trying to one-up each other in terms of the praise they lavish on him.\r\n\r\nBTW, the clear winner in that category? EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Here\u2019s a snippet of what he had to say: \u201cGod bless America because at the end of the day, President Trump is here, JD Vance is here and the greatest cabinet ever assembled to deliver that much needed and highly demanded accountability.\u201d\r\n\r\nGreatest Cabinet ever assembled!","use_excerpt":"1","paywall_enabled":"1","content_id":"1e7ff77a-51b9-47e6-9cc6-d5f9f1427614","sync_status":"synced","last_sync":"2025-10-18 14:55:13","error_message":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/34"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}