Everyone, including Gavin Smith, a former communications official for the Trump administration, had a bone to pick with the former president’s Truth Social tirades against political opponent Ron DeSantis.
Both Smith and CNN political commentator Paul Begala joined the news network Sunday to react to the Donald Trump’s recent Truth Social posts attacking the Florida governor as “weak.”
In a 1 a.m. post, Trump wrote on Sunday, “… Low Energy Jeb Bush is [Desantis’] hero & always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak…”
The former president also said it would be “inappropriate” to use the word “meatball” as a moniker, which has been assumed to refer to DeSantis’ appearance and Italian heritage.
“Mr. Trump is barking because he’s hit, he’s worried, he’s scared of Governor DeSantis,” Begala reasoned.
Smith—who was one of six people hired in South Carolina to lead the Presidential campaign of then-candidate Trump and subsequently went on to join his national campaign staff as a Press Lead—wasted no time making his disdain for the former president clear, despite their history together.
“At the end of the day, Donald Trump is his own worst enemy,” said Smith. “Nikki Haley has been getting a lot of slack for not taking him on, but I’ve been one of the people saying, ‘Hey, why in the world should she? Donald Trump is going to do himself in.’”
The former communications official went on to share an anecdote about a “grassroots person” he met in his native South Carolina who he said told him that the state loves “90 percent of policies from the Trump administration, but [hates] 90 percent of what he says.”
“I think that’s the best way to put it,” Smith said.
The panel also discussed Trump’s upcoming visit to the train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio.
“Why would you want [Trump] rolling into town?” questioned Smith.
Similarly, Begala worried that Trump may make things worse in Ohio, as he doesn’t have the best reputation for showing empathy.
“It’s a good thing to shine a light on what’s happening to those folks there … so that could be a very good thing if Mr. Trump was capable of turning the spotlight off himself and putting it onto those families and that community that’s in a lot of pain, a lot of fear,” Begala said. “I worry he can’t.”
He continued: “He’s not good in empathy. We all recall when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, and he was throwing paper towels around—he’s not good at shifting the spotlight off of him, so I actually think this is a high risk event for Mr. Trump. This is a time when everybody should be focusing on [the Ohio] community and their needs, and I do think that [Trump] tends, perhaps, to want all the attention to be on himself.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
