Trump’s Reality Show Drama Is Back – Michael Warren

But one of the more notable responses to the Trump-Musk snipefest came from Vice President J.D. Vance. Last week, as Musk was trying to tie Trump to an alleged sex trafficker, Vance was recording This Past Weekend, a popular podcast (yes, you’ve also got to listen to podcasts to keep up with Trumpworld). Comedian and host Theo Von asked Vance about the spat, and the vice president, between sips from a can of Celsius energy drink, laughed a bit uncomfortably before saying he would, of course, side with Trump. 

Vance waved away Musk’s angry eruption as a mistaken reaction from a “frustrated” and “emotional” person. But Trump, he went on, is different. 

“He’s not, like, quick to temper. He’s not one of these guys who flies off the handle,” Vance claimed. Later that day, on X, Vance went on. “There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he’s impulsive or short-tempered,” he posted. “Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that’s ridiculous.”

Vance is free to have his own interpretation of his boss’s temperament, but the claim that Trump hasn’t demonstrated a short temper or impulsiveness runs counter to dozens of first-hand accounts of others who have worked for him. (Let alone the numerous times Trump has let his anger get the best of him right in front of the cameras.)

There was the time in 2017 when he berated his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, upon learning a special counsel was investigating links between Trump’s campaign associates and Russia. This came just two months after aides told the Washington Post Trump “exploded” in anger that Sessions had recused himself from the investigation. Yelling appears to have been a common communication tactic, and among the various targets of Trump’s ire were onetime White House aides Don McGahn, Mike Flynn, Mick Mulvaney, and numerous others.

Particularly in his first term, Trump could be swayed on policy by a single person or article in ways that would delay important decisions. One notable case was the abrupt reversal of his decision in July 2017 to certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal the country had agreed to with the previous administration—which he then, hours later, reversed again, agreeing to (but in anger, aides said) recertify Iran’s compliance.

Constant reports surfaced about Trump aides who spent much of the first term finding ways of “calming” down an agitated president, including bringing in outside influences such as his friends from the business world. His former White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, wrote in her book that one aide (later surmised to be Max Miller, now a congressman from Ohio) had the job of “Music Man,” tasked “to play him his favorite show tunes, including ‘Memory’ from ‘Cats,’ to pull him from the brink of rage.”

Or how about the countless times people have witnessed Trump throwing things in fury. Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide, testified before the January 6 committee that Trump had thrown his lunch against the wall in December 2020 after learning that his then-attorney general, William Barr, had said publicly there was no widespread fraud in the recent election. Last year, attorney Roberta Kaplan told Politico that during a deposition at Mar-a-Lago, Trump took a pile of papers and “just threw it across the table.” The Washington Post reported moments in the first term where aides said he threw a drink, a remote control, and paper.

But maybe all of those people, accounts, and our own eyes and ears are wrong, and Trump really is, as Vance also told Von, “smooth” and “stoic.”

Regardless of the veracity of the vice president’s claim, what’s also interesting is what Vance admitted about himself in his defense of Trump. While the president isn’t one to fly off the handle, he said, “That’s a little bit more what I’m like, honestly.” Later in the podcast, Vance tried to downplay the significance of Musk’s harsh turn against Trump. “Look, it happens to everybody. I’ve flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours,” Vance told Von.

Vance has discussed his anger before, primarily in his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy. In that book, he describes coming to grips with an unstable childhood and adolescence with a drug-addicted mother, which included witnessing domestic violence and other traumatic moments.

“Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion,” he wrote in the book, in which he recalls feeling even as a young boy a “rage that could have driven me to kill” as his mother fought with her romantic partners. Vance also recounts exploding in anger and frustration at his now-wife, Usha, following a less-than-stellar job interview. He credits Usha for helping him get better control of his emotions.

Even if Vance’s own impulsiveness and emotionality now manifests in him being Too Online, he’s still exhibiting a level of self-reflection that might benefit others in the administration and his party. It would make the show a lot less entertaining, but Trump and Musk might want to take note.