Maureen Dowd’s column exposes how Natalie Harp used her access to knife Susie Wiles—showing Trump the Politico Playbook story about Wiles’s daughter profiting from lobbying for Republika Srpska (a pro-Russian Bosnian Serb territory). But Wiles didn't panic; she let television do her dirty work. When Zacharia was tossed onto Hannity, assuming she was in friendly territory, Hannity ambushed her over her fake attorney claims and 14-minute disaster debut. Within 24 hours, Trump showed Zacharia the door, advising her to "reconsider" her job. Dowd chronicles a single, breathtaking week of White House corruption and incompetence: •Kimberly Guilfoyle getting fired as ambassador to Greece after shaking down a donor to pay her $100,000 AmEx bill. •Ric Grenell and Alina Habba Mildon fighting over $5.6 million in misallocated Kennedy Center funds. •Pete Hegseth getting shut down over his "nitwit plan" to livestream a military firing squad execution on Twitch. •Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling out Trump's "sordid deal" with Vladimir Putin over Russian diesel while White House directives throttle Ukraine's Starshield connectivity. “Instead of running the country and dealing with the world he has set on fire, Trump is focused on settling petty squabbles and a web of corruption in his incompetent—and dangerous—court.” Trump’s bubble is getting smaller, more ingrown, and more fractious, leaving an exhausted public to watch an empire bicker over its own demise. nytimes.com/2026/10/17/opini…