Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka bemoaned President Donald Trump’s newfound isolation, and alleged that GOP leadership mistakenly takes the credit for Trump’s victory while discounting the role Trump himself played in the win.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are “living in a fantasy illusion,” and failing to live up to their party’s promise to the American people on Obamacare repeal, Gorka claimed in a Tuesday interview with The Hill.
“They still live in this fantasy illusion that November 8th was their victory as much as it was the president’s,” Gorka told The Hill in the phone interview. “And they will pay a penalty for that mistake and belief.”
“Given that the president deliberately asked his colleagues on the Hill to bring relief to America from the disaster that is Obamacare and that after 8 years of promises, they failed. I would say Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan’s credibility is lost and unrecoverable,” the former adviser said.
Gorka left the White House Friday after serving in ill-defined but largely public role, often appearing on television to defend Trump’s foreign policy and to lash out against perceived unfair treatment by the media.
Gorka’s departure comes one week after that of close ally and former Breitbart colleague Steve Bannon. Gorka’s resignation letter mirrored Bannon’s in criticizing establishment Republicans for coopting the “Make America Great Again” movement.
Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly has brought a previously unseen level of discipline and process to the West Wing, restricting the flow of personnel and information that crosses the Oval Office threshold, in a move that Gorka believes has left Trump feeling “isolated.”
“The president currently feels, to a certain extent, isolated,” Gorka said. “Individuals don’t have access to him as they did in the past.”
“So we know General Kelly wanted to impose a certain regimen on the system,” he said. “But there are aspects of the new regime that the president is not satisfied with, let me leave it at that.”
Gorka added that it remains unclear whether Kelly’s management style will sufficiently merge with Trump’s persona in a way that proves satisfactory to the president.
“He’s definitely asserted control as one would expect from a military professional,” Gorka said. “The key unknown is whether his style will comport with the president’s expectations and own style … Look at White House history. Being an effective chief of staff is never just about efficiency. It’s far more about chemistry and commitment to the president’s vision.”
McConnell and Ryan’s respective offices did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment on Gorka’s interview in time for publication.
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