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Like a chubby, orange-haired, 71-year-old version of Edith Piaf, Donald Trump reportedly declared that, after his legendary press conference meltdown on Tuesday, he regrets nothing . And indeed, there did seem to be an unhinged glee in his now notorious performance, reminiscent of Howard Beale in Network, during which he declared, among other things, that there were some very fine people marching with the torch-bearing neo-fascists in Charlottesville.

It was a stark contrast from Monday, when his staff allegedly forced him to choke out a statement that read in part, "Racism is eviland those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups, that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans." Staring at the teleprompter, he wore the look usually seen on a third grader hauled back to the dime store by his mommy and forced to apologize to the salesclerk for shoplifting.

But no such glum expression crossed his visage the following afternoon, as he decried the loss of toppled Confederate statues, castigated something he called the alt-left, and insisted that there was blame on both sides. We should have been able to gauge his mood even before he crossed the gilded threshold of Trump Tower, since that morning he had already tweeted (and then hastily removed) a cartoon of a train running over a CNN reporter, a particularly tasteful, sensitive contribution to the national debate, given the way in which Heather Heyer was murdered in Charlottesville three days before.

Shell-shocked newscasters (even on Fox! Fox!) expected that this Tuesday debacle, this seeming defense of white supremacy and Neo-Nazism, would be the rhetorical straw that would break the inner circles back, that a red line had been crossed, that a whole gallery of profiles would call out the president and stream out of the West Wing.

We are still waiting for the first staffer to (intentionally) jump off this sinking ship (come on guys, you can do it!). Still, a growing number of Republican lawmakers23 at last counthave critiqued the president by name, the highest-placed among them being Senator Bob Corker, who even appeared to hint that he thinks Trump is nuts, or, as he genteelly put it , that he believes the president has yet to demonstrate stability.

Corker followed a posse of businessmen who took a hike immediately after the Tuesday rant, beginning with Kenneth Frazier, the president of Merck Pharmaceuticals, and swiftly joined by other CEOs. In a K Street version of Youre not breaking up with me! I am breaking up with you first!the president suddenly disbanded the councils on which these fat cats sat.

Wait, so now we kind of like Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart? At least this captain of industry said, in a message posted to the stores website: "As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists." (Can McMillon be a member of this mysterious alt-left?)

Apparently, Anthony Scaramucci is not the only former White House official who doesnt know what off-the-record means: following in the bizarre footsteps of "the Mooch," on Wednesday, White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon appeared in an odd chat with Robert Kuttner, the co-editor of the American Prospect, openly sneering at the presidents threats against North Korea and alleging that his enemies inside the White House were wetting themselves. Seventy-two hours later, in yet another Friday afternoon massacre, Bannon was dead in the water , apparently defenestrated by Chief of Staff John Kelly and sent scurrying back to the rats nest of Breitbart News . Rumor is that the Commander-in-Chief was also sick of Stevie, convinced that Bannon was a leaker, contributing to his not-a-minute-too-soon downfall. (Wetting? Leaking? What's with these disgusting figures of speech?)

Anyway, according to the erstwhile Chief Strategist, who gave a manic interview to The Weekly Standard a few hours after being axed, "The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.

From your evil lips to Gods ears, Mr. Bannon.

See the article here:
Which Republicans Will Desert Trump's Sinking Ship First? - Vogue.com