MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday said President Donald Trump has made yet another unprecedented confession — this time concerning the upcoming midterm elections, which even numerous right-wing pundits believe will be disastrous for the GOP.
“Donald Trump said, ‘I don’t care about the midterms,’” O’Donnell said Wednesday. “Donald Trump is the first president in history to say that he doesn’t care about the midterm elections. No president has ever said that, even in private.”
He continued, “But Donald Trump chose to say it today in a setting that is supposed to be private, a Cabinet meeting. Donald Trump bragged at the beginning of his so-called Cabinet meeting today, about inviting the White House press corps to join the Cabinet meeting.”
The “Last Word” host went on to note these meetings were “important enough to be private” until Trump took office and turned them into “the kind of cheap reality TV” that the former “Apprentice” host is used to, preventing officials from “speaking freely to Donald Trump.”
O’Donnell added that Cabinet members thus do nothing but “praise Donald Trump” during these meetings, as has been seen in numerous instances over the past year, and that these “silly, televised” gatherings have lost their entire purpose as a result of the spectacle.
The MS NOW host went on to play the actual clip of Trump stating Wednesday during his Cabinet meeting that he doesn’t “care about the midterms,” an admission prompted by a question about his ongoing war on Iran and ostensible negotiations to end the conflict.
“They thought they were going to outwait me, you know?” Trump said Wednesday. “‘We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms.”
O’Donnell noted Trump spent “nearly nine minutes” during this meeting talking about his plans to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., which he has been fixated on while also obsessing about his exorbitant White House ballroom project.
Trump’s war on Iran has already cost at least 13 U.S. military service members and more than 3,000 Iranians their lives, resulting in high gas prices and fears of a global energy crisis. O’Donnell noted that Republican lawmakers appear to be splitting with Trump.
“Republicans in the Senate and in the House do care about the midterm elections, and they know Donald Trump is not helping them, and they know nothing is hurting them more than Donald Trump’s war in Iran and the inflation it has caused in this country, especially skyrocketing costs of gasoline and diesel fuel,” O’Donnell said.
He continued, “Eighty-three percent of voters say gas prices are going up a little or a lot, and not a single person has said gas prices are going down a lot — except Donald Trump, who said that today in his fake Cabinet meeting.”
O’Donnell then played footage showing Cabinet members fawning over Trump at the meeting, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praising him for his “smart” war on Iran — and Trump literally patting Hegseth while laughingly stating, “He loves war.”
“The Cabinet room has never reeked of such stupidity and inhumanity before, and it never will again after the Trump presidency,” O’Donnell said.
Watch the full “Last Word” monologue on MS NOW’s YouTube account.