Today is Tuesday, December 16, 2025. Just two days after the demented president posted a vile, insensitive, disgusting post on the death of Rob Reiner, today I’m learning that the behind-the-scenes Drumpf chief of staff Susie Wiles scorched Grump and his present regime in a sweeping Vanity Fair profile published Thursday. This blistering account of the chaos within the Grump administration is covered in a Daily Kos piece published today entitled “Trump’s top aide exposes White House chaos – and regrets it.”

As if we didn’t know already, Wiles described Mascara Vance as a “conspiracy theorist for a decade.” The remark lands amid lingering speculation over Vance’s political transformation – from once likening the toddler in chief to Adolf Hitler – which is accurate, in my opinion – to becoming one of his staunchest defenders. Wiles suggests the shift was less ideological than opportunistic, calling it “sort of political.” Anyone could have guessed that after he was one of Grump’s most strongest critics who then executed a 180-degree turnaround when he ran for the Senate in Ohio and was backed by the odious billionaire Peter Thiel. I’m ashamed to say that Thiel is patently gay.

Responding to Wiles’ assessment of Vance being a conspiracy nut, Vance himself offered a wry caveat. He said, “Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in conspiracy theories that are true.” Yuck, yuck, yuck! So droll coming from such an insipid personality!

In her interview, Wiles is unsparing in her criticism toward Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, calling him “a right-wing absolute zealot.” Which is no surprise here!

The magazine notes that Vought was the “architect of the notorious Project 2025” which is being carried out by this lying son of a bitch who originally claimed he had no knowledge of it when he was campaigning. This is the Heritage Foundation-backed blueprint to radically reshape the federal government.

Wiles also weighed in on the despised Elon Musk and his short-lived effort to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget, an initiative that ended with Musk conceding he could cut only $150 billion by the end of 2026. And when asked about Musk’s continually erratic behavior, Wiles did not mince words.

The chief of staff said that Musk was actually microdosing when he was being erratic. In a since-deleted post, Musk originally argued that fascistic leaders like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler “didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did.”

As for Musk’s suspected drug use, Wiles confirms all of the speculation. She claims that the Tesla mogul is an “avowed ketamine [user],” echoing The New York Times‘ claim that Musk heavily used drugs while working in the White House. Not only does this current White House protect pedophiles, it also protects drug users, according to this interview with Wiles. Wiles said Musk sometimes mixes ketamine with other drugs. The liberal newspaper also notes that Musk is an avid user of ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, and Adderall. Oye, was little Muskie high all that time while he was slashing the federal government’s supposed excess?

Her own Orange Toad of a boss wasn’t even spared in the magazine, with Wiles describing Grump as having an “alcoholic’s personality,” drawing a comparison to her father, legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, who struggled with alcoholism before getting sober.

Here I dispute Wiles’ assessment of Grump’s horrible personality, describing it as an alcoholic’s. She claims that alcoholics have “exaggerated personalities when they drink.” This is true, I won’t deny that, not that I know many alcoholics. I just feel that Grump has a cruel, vindictive, and soulless personality arising from lack of love given him when he was young. That is the assessment made years ago by his estranged niece, Mary Trump, in her psychological profile of him published years ago called Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.

We all know that one of the things this idiot doesn’t do is drink. He cites his older brother Fred’s addiction to drink and his early death as the reason why he doesn’t drink. However, he does drink Diet Coke continuously. Because of this nasty habit, the president can point to a button on the Resolute Desk that summons the beverage at the press of a button.

While the media-shy Wiles made the comments to Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple, she has been one of Grump’s most loyal and influential advisers, previously managing his 2024 campaign.

Talking about her boss’s unfounded allegations of mortgage fraud against Attorney General Letitia James, Wiles concedes that Drumpf did carry out a retribution campaign against her. Here she makes a laughingly absurd remark about Trump’s thirst for vengeance, “I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution. But when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.” Like always, I’d say.

Now that the interview with Wiles is on the record, the camera-shy Wiles attempted to push back against the narrative of a chaotic and frenzied White House, saying that the Vanity Fair profile was a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” arguing that key context had been omitted to paint the White House as chaotic and negative. I don’t think that if Susie Wiles sat down with this Whipple fellow to give a candid interview about what goes on in the Dump White House and then literally blows the roof off the building in the process that she can now walk back what she already said in the profile.

But don’t think Ms. Wiles has changed her MAGA roots from doing this interview. She has drunk the Dump Kool-Aid like so many gullible Americans when she insists that the administration had “already accomplished more in eleven months than any other President has accomplished in eight years.” My jaw just drops from reading this hogwash. She signals out Drumpf’s “unmatched leadership and vision” and says that nothing in the story would slow the push to “Making America Great Again.” Give me a break, lady! You certainly didn’t paint a rosy picture of your boss’s regime for Americans for Vanity Fair and people reading it will just shrug their heads in agreement.

Today I did have lunch with my former colleague “Sally” and her husband “Stuart.” We met at a very chi-chi place on East 70th Street and held forth for almost 2 hours. After that, I walked to the West Side to browse in my favorite bookstore on 80th Street and Broadway. I succumbed to buying a book for only $1 this time: Susan Isaac’s Compromising Positions, a book from 1978. I think I saw the movie that the book was adapted into from 1985 that starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia. It was a comedy/mystery.

Talking about mystery, I saw the latest Knives Out entry on Netflix last night on the recommendation of my friend “Harold.” At the outset, I have to say I was ecstatic over the whole production: the scenery, the setting, the characters, and the marvelous acting from a rich ensemble, headed by Daniel Craig as the detective Benoit Blanc. This is the third entry in the series created by writer/ director Rian Johnson, and I aver it’s the best in my opinion.

This film is called Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and mystery it is, as Blanc is called in to a small parish to investigate the mysterious murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (a bellowing Josh Brolin who is unrecognizable at first in a flowing white beard and hair). This fire-and-brimstone pastor is found stabbed in the back during a Good Friday service, moments after having ducked into a small stone alcove, just off the main altar, in full view of the congregation. Soon the visiting priest, Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is suspected of Brolin’s murder since he has had words with the monsignor and is opposed to the church leader’s methods of attracting parishioners. The young priest who maintains his innocence throughout, here brilliantly played by O’Connor, is brought into Blanc’s confidence to investigate the remaining flock who become the true suspects.

Here the cast is fleshed out by Glenn Close as perennial church assistant and overall factotum Martha Delacroix, the failed far-right politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), the once-popular novelist Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), the hard-driving lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), and the town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner) who is nursing his depression after his wife leaves him for someone else, and the wheelchair-bound former star cellist (Cailee Spaeny), who hopes that the thousands of dollars she’s donated to Wicks will generate a miracle cure for her chronic pain. Before long, we learn that all of them had good reason to kill the monsignor. During all of this chaos, there is even echoes of a Third Day Resurrection. Mila Kunis plays the local police chief who brings Craig into the case, as she finds herself out of her league with this mystifying murder.

I won’t give much else away, only to highly recommend the film for great writing, in which themes of faith, spirituality, and immortality are tackled. Craig and O’Connor make a very intriguing pair as they conduct their investigation into Brolin’s murder. They also spar over religion, as Blanc notes his skepticism over Catholicism, while young Father Jud tries to nudge him toward something more spiritual throughout their association.

Go see it if you have Netflix.

Good news: I’ll be here tomorrow since I discovered that only four people were going to attend the TCM meeting at the Tick Tock Diner. So I texted our organizer and said I was now not coming.

And so it went!