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Susie Wiles interview might be a useful distraction from how poorly things are going for Americans

So it appears Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, agrees with many of us: she thinks Donald Trump’s cabinet is bonkers.

From that bombshell Vanity Fair interview, which featured some truly terrifying close-up photos, we learned that Wiles considers JD Vance to have been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade”. She believes Elon Musk to be an “odd, odd duck”. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, is, in Wiles’ view, “a right-wing absolute zealot”.

Pam Bondi, the attorney general, “whiffed” her handling of the Epstein files, Wiles said. And Trump? He has “an alcoholic’s personality”, and is “wrong” about Bill Clinton having visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

It was pretty incendiary stuff from a woman previously known for her calmness and aversion to drama. Wiles, who appears to retain the support of Trump, has responded by calling the Vanity Fair article “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest president, White House staff, and cabinet in history”, without pointing to any quotes or reporting that was incorrect.

The whole thing might have served as a useful distraction for Trump though, because – whisper it – things are not actually going that well.

A long overdue jobs report found this week that 41,000 jobs were lost across October and November. Manufacturing jobs are at a 3.5-year low, according to CNN, despite Trump promising a “manufacturing renaissance”, and pledging that his tariffs would create “millions and millions of blue-collar jobs and jobs of every type”.

“If we’re judging by these numbers, Americans are completely dissatisfied with the way things are happening in this country.”

It’s not ideal. And it gets worse.

The unemployment rate hit 4.6% in November, a four year high. Recent Republican election losses have sparked fears over next year’s midterm elections. Trump’s own party defied him over releasing the Epstein files; health subsidies are due to expire at the end of next year, which would send insurance premiums soaring for 22 million Americans; and Trump’s vendetta-driven lawsuits against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and the former FBI director, James Comey, have been thrown out by courts.

The Trump administration isn’t having a great time of it, in other words. And people are starting to take notice. Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy, an area which was supposed to be his strength: only 36% approve.

An NBC poll found that more than half of low- and middle-income Americans have changed which groceries they buy to stay within their budgets, and a majority of Americans plan to spend less on Christmas or holiday gifts. Regarding his overall performance, 54% of Americans disapprove of Trump: just 43% approve.

“If we’re judging by these numbers, Americans are completely dissatisfied with the way things are happening in this country,” Emmitt Riley III, a professor of politics at Sewanee: The University Of The South and the chair of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, told me this week.

Riley said there’s good reason for that.

“If we think about the rate of inflation, if we think about the cost of living, if we think about how Americans are experiencing rising costs in groceries, rent, cars, what have you, then we would have to give him an F.”

Even his support among his base has dropped. In April, 78% of people who consider themselves Maga Republicans strongly approved of Trump – that’s fallen to 70%.

“It appears that Americans who – for whatever reason – believed that a billionaire would be a champion for the poor and working class have now grown sour on the actual implementation of the Trump agenda,” Riley said.

Trump’s response appears to be to tell people not to believe their own eyes and bank accounts, that, actually, the economy is doing great. The president has dismissed concerns about prices as a “hoax” and a “con job”, even as his vice-president this week asked people for “a little bit of patience” before they see an economic upturn.

With Trump due to deliver a live address from the White House on Wednesday night, perhaps he will adopt a more contrite tone. But this is Donald Trump, so I wouldn’t bet on it.

And while we’re discussing the lived experience of White House policies, I should point you to the stunning work of my colleagues, who have been documenting the impact of the Trump administration on real people.