Conservative political consultant Rick Wilson says a “MAGA Hunger Games” is playing out in Washington as President Donald Trump, 79, shows his age.
Wilson said “rumors from the Trumpverse” indicate that Vice President JD Vance is “moving fast” in this shuffling of power behind the scenes, positioning himself to take over the MAGA movement sooner rather than later, according to Wilson’s Substack.
“Slow or fast, he’s headed down,” Wilson said of Trump. “The circle who knows what’s up is very, very small and very, very paranoid. JD Vance knows, and he’s moving fast.”
Wilson pointed to Vance’s interview this week with USA Today—in which he said he is prepared to take over the presidency, having received “on-the-job training” in the first seven months of this term—as further proof of jostling behind the scenes.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Reached by the Daily Beast, Vance’s office did not address the allegations made by Wilson.
Trump said in May that it was “far too early to say” who might succeed him. However, he noted that Vance was “doing a fantastic job” and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “great.” Of course, the 25th Amendment stipulates that, should anything happen to Trump during this term, Vance would become president.
Wilson, 61, has been among Trump’s most prominent critics from the right. He co-founded The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump Super PAC, and has written books that are highly critical of the president and the MAGA movement.
Publicly, both Vance and White House spokespeople have brushed off rumors that Trump’s health is slipping.
In the same interview in which he declared he was prepared to become president, the vice president said Trump “is in incredibly good health” and has “incredible energy.”
“While most of the people who work around the President of the United States are younger than he is, I think that we find that he actually is the last person who goes to sleep,” Vance told USA Today.
Vance continued, “He’s the last person making phone calls at night, and he’s the first person who wakes up and the first person making phone calls in the morning. So yes, things can always happen. Yes, terrible tragedies happen, but I feel very confident the President of the United States is in good shape, is going to serve out the remainder of this term, and do great things for the American people.”
The White House trotted out Trump’s first-term physician, Ronny Jackson, who has since lost his medical license and now represents Texas in Congress, to declare on Tuesday that the fast-food-loving Trump is “the healthiest president this nation has ever seen.”
That statement does not pass the eye test for many Americans.
Trump’s severely swollen ankles have been photographed repeatedly this summer, and he has struggled to walk in a straight line on multiple occasions. He also has sported severe bruising on both of his hands, which he has attempted to conceal with a copious amount of makeup.
The White House announced in July that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that occurs when leg vein valves fail, causing blood to pool, and is supposedly why Trump now has cankles. As for his hand bruising, the White House claimed it was a result of repeated hand-shaking paired with the taking of aspirin, though that does not explain why the bruising appears on both hands.
Trump has also had his fair share of mental lapses this summer. On Aug. 12, he said that he was traveling to Russia to meet with Putin despite the meeting actually taking place in Alaska. He then referred to the Russian city of St. Petersburg as “Leningrad,” a name that has been retired since 1991.
Even more recently, Trump failed to recognize Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who was seated right in front of him, and was way off on the name of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
