Donald Trump has an aide with a laptop and printer following him around the golf course showing him uplifting news articles, according to a new report.
Aides have also reportedly been calling his old network of contacts asking them to phone the former president to lift his spirits.
The report by the Washington Post painted a portrait of a restless former commander in chief who is surrounded by ever more junior advisers.
Former advisers suggested that was a contributory factor to a string of recent problems, including the storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and Mr. Trump’s widely condemned dinner there with Kanye West and the far-Right extremist Nick Fuentes.
The only aide present when Mr. Trump hosted that dinner was a former valet in the White House.
‘Barbie Dream House miniature’
Mr Trump has spent most of his post-presidency at Mar-a-Lago and his club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He has not taken any holidays to anywhere he does not own.
He plays at least 18 holes of golf most days and is followed on the course in a buggy by a former cable television host.
She has a laptop, and sometimes a printer, to print off positive online stories so he can read them on paper.
Old friends are said to have received calls from an aide saying there is “not much going on” and can they phone him.
One former longtime adviser told The Washington Post: “He needs someone there to say: ‘Here’s a really bad idea, and this is why.'”
Another longtime confidant told the newspaper that Mr. Trump’s post-presidency life at Mar-a-Lago seemed “sad” and that, in an attempt to make things like the White House, he had created a “Barbie Dream House miniature”.
Former aides also said that, having refused to accept losing the 2020 election, Mr. Trump was not interested in setting up a presidential library or a foundation like his predecessors.
In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Trump responded that the former president had spent his time since leaving office “continuing to build up the Maga movement and helping elect America First candidates across the country”.
The spokesperson added: “There is nobody who has worked harder to advance the conservative movement.
“President Trump continues to be the single, most dominant force in politics and people, especially unnamed sources who purport to be close to him, should never doubt his ability to win in a decisive and commanding fashion.”
On Monday, the congressional committee investigating the riot at the US Capitol on Jan 6 2020 referred Mr Trump to the Department of Justice, recommending four criminal charges including insurrection.
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