Political Wire

  • Front Page
  • Trending News
  • Polling Dashboard
  • Membership
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
  • Sign In
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / White House / Trump Was Worse Than a ‘Useful Idiot’

Trump Was Worse Than a ‘Useful Idiot’

April 22, 2019 at 1:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Garrett Graff: “As Mueller laid out in his 448-page report, Trump’s behavior during his campaign and first two years in office makes clear that Trump was not simply a ‘useful idiot,’ a clueless pawn manipulated to Russia’s ends. It’s worse than that.”

“Mueller paints a detailed, consistent, and compelling portrait, compiled and amassed through both comprehensive documentary evidence and sworn testimony, of a man so immoral that while campaigning to be commander-in-chief he ‘expected’ to benefit from an attack by America’s leading traditional adversary, even asking publicly for more help from Russia; a man who promised to ‘Make America Great Again’ but who was so unpatriotic that his campaign fielded numerous inquiries and offers of help from Russia without ever once contacting law enforcement or US intelligence; a man who swore to uphold the Constitution at his inauguration, but was so insecure that despite evidently not even doing anything wrong, his first instinct was to obstruct the justice process repeatedly; a man so narcissistic that he swore to defend the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic, yet his first instinct was not anger at the authoritarian who attacked our democratic process but instead to magnify that attack by lambasting and undermining the professional, career intelligence and law enforcement officials who protect our country; a man so greedy that he lied repeatedly and openly to the American people about how he hoped Vladimir Putin would deliver hundreds of millions of dollars to his personal family business; and a manager so clueless and disrespected that his own senior campaign staff were carrying not one, not two, but three separate, unrelated criminal conspiracies even as they have purported to work on his behalf.”

“The Mueller report outlines a portrait of a man completely unsuitable as the protector of the Constitution and arbiter of national security, a leader wholly unable to separate the good of our country from his own business interests, so lacking a moral compass that he would be unfit to lead a publicly traded company or possess a low-level government security clearance.”

  • Bluesky
  • X
  • Threads
  • Facebook
  • Email

Filed Under: White House

« Biden Will Kick Off Campaign in Charlottesville
Sanders Way Ahead In New Hampshire »

Your Account

Sign in

Members Only

  • Weekly News Quiz
  • Trump Nationalizes the Midterms
  • No Trial Balloon This Week
  • Elizabeth Warren’s Tariff Logic Gets Twisted
  • The Great Technology Backlash
Daily Game
The Way It Was
Eight moments in political history. One timeline. Can you put them in order?
Scandals, landslides, landmark rulings and famous firsts — how well do you know what came before what?
Play today’s puzzle →
A new puzzle every day.
Daily Game
Yea or Nay?
Five senators. Three bills. Fifteen votes. Can you call them all?
Every answer is a real recorded vote from the official Senate roll call — how well do you know Congress?
Play today’s game →
A new game every day.
Trial Balloon

Add Trial Balloon to your podcast player to get new episodes each week.

My Favorites

  • Your favorites will be here.

See more favorites

About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Copyright © 2026 · Goddard Media LLC | Privacy Policy | Corrections Policy

Political Wire ® is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC