'Smokescreen': Ex-GOP insider says Trump is hiding an 'unprecedented' power
Donald Trump has successfully hidden his growing power, which has reached "unprecedented" levels, according to an independent political strategist who worked on former President George W. Bush's campaign.
Political strategist Steve Schmidt, who recently warned of the "massive" impacts of Trump's so-called "big, beautiful" bill, published an article on Sunday called, "The storm has arrived."
Despite working on Republican campaigns in the past, Schmidt claimed that, "Whether it was Hannity, Ingraham, Watters, Leavitt, or any of the other un-American liars who guard MAGA’s lies with more lies, the truth of the matter is that only one elected official and one political party in America has become a vessel of violence and mayhem."
He goes on to highlight several other purportedly toxic traits of the GOP, adding, "The official name of that party is Republican, but it is no such thing. It has not been for a good, long time."
"It is the MAGA party, and its leader is Trump, who hates the people he leads," Schmidt said before quoting Trump himself.
"They wouldn’t vote only because they hate Trump, but I hate them, too, you know? I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country," the president said.
The strategist goes on to say, "Disaster has come to America. However, it is not yet being seen clearly enough by enough American leaders, who look at the massive BBB, and still can’t unwrap the hideousness of its details from the purpose at its core."
"The bill does many, many, many terrible things to scores of tens of millions of Americans, while enriching the most powerful people, companies and interests in America by transferring staggering amounts of wealth from the bottom to the top. It is cruel, incompetent, unfair, irresponsible and profoundly corrupt, but all of that is just the intricate packaging," he said Sunday. "Astonishingly, Trump was able to use the coming miseries as a smokescreen to hide his burgeoning power, which is now unprecedented."