It’s been another week of self-sabotage for President Donald Trump.
The president, 79, faced a fresh wave of controversies this week on everything from his newly appointed CDC chief—who was met disapprovingly by the MAHA faithful—to a bizarre DoorDash stunt that even he admitted was “tacky.”
In a live episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, host Joanna Coles and Daily Beast executive editor Hugh Dougherty broke down all the weird ways that Trump upset Americans on both sides of the aisle in another whirlwind week.
“We know the polls have been dire. Gas prices have gone up. Inflation is showing no signs of going away. And the one thing that we know is that there’s a midterm blue tsunami being predicted by even people inside the Republican Party,” Dougherty said.
“And last week, his wife got up there and said she has nothing to do with Epstein, which brought the Epstein files back into the center of attention,” Coles added.
On Thursday, Trump announced that he was appointing Erica Schwartz, a Brown University-educated doctor, as the director of the CDC. The appointment of a vaccine supporter at the helm of the agency marks a sharp turn away from its MAHA-fication, which saw Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overhaul a critical vaccine advisory committee to install vaccine skeptics like him.
Kennedy’s announcement of Schwartz’s appointment was met with disdain by his base, with one user writing, “I did not vote for this. I’m MAHA. This is wrong and we need you to push back on this type of appointment.”
“The MAHA people are melting down at this. There’s a real sense of betrayal by MAHA,” Dougherty said. “[And] a big slap around the head for RFK Jr.”
Speaking of big slaps, the Trump administration has decided to move away from its chest-thumping montages and other cringey depictions of immigration operations after a massive deportation blitz in Minnesota killed two Americans and drew widespread backlash.
A former Homeland Security official told Axios that “cooler heads have prevailed” in the White House, where Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and top aide James Blair have decided to recalibrate the administration’s messaging around immigration ahead of the midterms.
Trump has also been busy touting his policies as November inches closer.
On Monday, Trump accepted a DoorDash delivery of his favorite McDonald’s from Sharon Simmons, a 58-year-old grandmother of 10 from Arkansas, to promote his “no tax on tips” policy.
“This doesn’t look staged, does it?” Trump quipped as he took the fast food bag in front of the cameras.
“So this is where we get to the self-sabotage,” Dougherty said. “He was supposed to give her a tip, and that would be it… But instead, he could not shut up. He couldn’t help himself.”
At another event promoting “no tax on tips” on Thursday night, Trump took a swipe at the stunt that he happily participated in just days before.
“Sharon delivered McDonald’s to the Oval Office. It was a little bit of a… you know, I mean, to be honest, it was a little tacky,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “You know, they come up with these crazy ideas like McDonald’s—although that was the biggest ever on Google, they say, number one ever—and the garbage truck. I mean, we do these things in politics. They’re a little embarrassing.”
Dougherty said the DoorDash saga perfectly summed up Trump’s week.
“The Republicans think, just one thing, just one thing. Just do this. Donald, Just do this. ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’ And then he sabotages it.”
When reached for comment, the White House referred the Daily Beast to the president’s earlier comments.
