MSNBC host Rachel Maddow blasted President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of “panicking” over protests and declaring, “Game over, big guy. You lose.” Her fiery remarks came during her once-a-week primetime show, where she claimed the growing opposition to Trump was now unstoppable.
“He has no idea what to do with the sustained and growing and intractable and indomitable protest and opposition of the American people against him. And so he has decided to try to fix it by using the army. Sure. Game over, big guy. You lose. The movement against Trump is unstoppable, now more than ever,” Maddow said.
She argued that Trump’s decision to send the National Guard into California to quell anti-ICE demonstrations showed a president who had lost control. “What we are seeing right now in California is a president panicking,” she said. “We have never before in the history of the US presidency, seen a president who is less popular than this one at this point in his term. And we have never seen a president less politically skilled, less politically equipped than this one to turn that kind of problem around, and so he has panicked, he is trying to hit the eject button.”
Maddow also suggested someone convinced Trump that targeting immigrants would be a winning political strategy. She claimed it had backfired, citing protests across the nation. “In town after town, in blue states and red states, in school after school, in parish after parish, in city after city. It has run him into a wall, because the American people do not want this kind of cruelty against the immigrants who live among us and are our neighbors and friends, and facing that kind of heart and that kind of resolve, and that kind of nonviolent good cheer… he has no idea what to do.”
Her comments come despite recent polling showing majority support for Trump’s deportation policies. Still, Maddow remained focused on the protest movement, framing it as a moral stand against what she called “cruelty.”
She continued her criticism during a handoff with fellow MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell. “Even if these protests were 100 times the size that they are, there still wouldn’t be an operational reason to bring in active-duty troops or federalized National Guard. I mean, it’s not that sort of thing. This is obviously not operationally necessitated, right, in terms of the security of the city,” she said.
Maddow now hosts just once a week, after previously anchoring nightly during Trump’s first 100 days. Her Monday slot has become a platform for delivering focused critiques of the former president’s actions and policies.
The White House responded sharply to her remarks. “Rachel Maddow is a tragic example of an individual suffering from late-stage TDS. We hope she is able to get the help she needs and that other individuals suffering from this disease see how bad it can get, and seek help before it’s too late!” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.