Donald Trump has attacked a New York Magazine reporter as a “wack job” after she revealed that a member of his own 2024 campaign believes “the magic is gone” for the former president.
Throughout the Christmas period, the one-term president has gone on a series of un-festive rants on his Truth Social platform, fuming about everything from the January 6 House committee report to the US’s southern border and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In a rambling post late on 26 December, Mr Trump this time hit out at journalist Olivia Nuzzi over an investigative feature she wrote for New York Magazine.
The article painted a picture of Mr Trump – who is facing calls to be criminally charged over the Capitol riot – living in near seclusion at Mar-a-Lago and describing his 2024 campaign as a “sad, lonely, thirsty, broken, basically pretend run for reelection”.
A current adviser told Ms Nuzzi that even members of Mr Trump’s inner circle have become skeptical about his third White House run – as members of his own party are increasingly turning their backs on the former president.
The advisor, who was not named but works on Mr Trump’s current campaign, described Mr Trump’s appeal as “gone” and admitted that “you can’t get it back”.
“It’s not there. In this business, you can have it and have it so hot and it can go overnight and it’s gone and you can’t get it back,” they said.
“I think we’re just seeing it’s gone. The magic is gone.”
On Monday, Ms Nuzzi told CNN that the advisor’s comments have shown that Mr Trump’s “mojo is gone”.
“That was an advisor speaking to me saying that the magic is gone and this person was not sure that Trump would be able to get it back,” she said.
“That’s sort of the difficult thing about a campaign that is really about a personality. Even if it were to be run in a really common sense way, would it really matter if the personality that it was built around is not really on his game?”
Mr Trump was clearly rattled by the revelations in the report as he launched into an angry tirade on his social media platform on Monday night.
In the unhinged rant, he made several personal attacks on the journalist who he branded “shaky”, “unattractive” and “dumb as a rock”.
The former president also claimed the sources “don’t exist” and branded New York Magazine as being “on its ‘last legs’” – while also resorting to his usual response to any unfavourable media that the report is “fake”.
“The Fake & Corrupt News is only getting worse! As an example, I agreed to do a short telephone interview for a once very good, but now on its “last legs” and failing, New York Magazine,” he fumed.
“The reporter was a shaky & unattractive wack job, known as “tough” but dumb as a rock, who actually wrote a decent story about me a long time ago.
“Her name, Olivia Nuzzi. Anyway, the story was Fake News, her “anonymous sources” don’t exist (true with many writers), and I’m happily fighting hard for our GREAT USA!”
In a follow-up post, he called himself America’s “favorite President” and the Capitol riot – which resulted in at least five deaths – a “PROTEST”.
Earlier, Mr Trump lashed out at Mr McConnell, baselessly claiming that Democrats “must have something really big” on him because the Republican refused to block a government funding bill.
This came after the former president celebrated the holidays by spreading outrage on his platform on Christmas Day.
In a series of posts, he fumed that the US is “dying from within” – while unsurprisingly pointing the blame onto his political rivals.
“On this very cold but beautiful Christmas Day, look at our Nation NOW on the Southern Border compared to only a short time ago during the Trump Administration,” he wrote.
“We had the most SECURE Border in our history, versus the “horror show” that that [sic] is happening now, with record-setting numbers of people, many of them hardened Criminals (including Killers, Human Traffickers and Drug Dealers), POURING INTO OUR COUNTRY at a rate the likes of which we have never seen before. The USA is dying from within!!!”
He added: “TODAY, LIKE NEVER BEFORE, WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION!”
Three days before Christmas, the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot released its full report, concluding that Mr Trump should never be allowed to hold office again and recommending the Justice Department bring four criminal charges against him.
Mr Trump’s tax returns are also set to be released at any moment after he lost a legal bid to keep them under wraps.
