How Trump's inner circle is imploding in ‘mafia-style’ war days before midterms

Donald Trump promised a 'golden age of America' when he returned to the White House in January 2025. Just days out from the midterms, the mood inside his administration is closer to the Ides of March.

The president’s top aides have turned on each other, leaking dirt on rivals, insulting them in public and accusing them of pay-for-play schemes, four sources tell the Daily Mail. Some now want their rivals prosecuted.

'This isn't like the mafia. It is the mafia. And people are going to get whacked,' a former Trump official said.

Alina Habba, Trump's former lawyer, has accused ex-Kennedy Center chief Ric Grenell of misappropriating a donation from her husband, even as she faces questions over her own alleged deal with a pardoned billionaire, which she has denied. Grenell has vehemently denied the accusation, daring her new husband to provide 'proof.'

Corey Lewandowski, who served as Kristi Noem's right hand at the Department of Homeland Security, is under DOJ investigation over alleged pay-to-play at DHS. He has also denied any wrongdoing.

Even Attorney General Todd Blanche is trading blows with Trump whisperer Laura Loomer on X after she accused his deputy of making lowball settlement offers to veterans sickened by toxic water at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina.

At the center of the bloodletting sits Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a prime target for those in Trump's inner circle angling to survive or thrive in a post-midterm blame game. The president insists there is 'zero chance' he replaces her.

The palace intrigue around Wiles spilled into the open this month, live on primetime television. Trump had handpicked Katie Zacharia as press secretary over Wiles' head. Five days later, after a widely panned first briefing and a train-wreck interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Zacharia was gone.

With a midterm drubbing looming, insiders said loyalty is draining fast, and aides are already weighing whether their futures lie with top 2028 contenders Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

'This is Trump 1 all over again,' a senior Trump official said. 'Significant leaking, knives out.' A top GOP insider added: 'Every White House has backstabbing. Every White House has Game of Thrones, but this is at a different, more intense level.'

The difference this time: money.

The former official said the accusations that get under Trump's skin are the ones about people around him cashing in. 'He hates that s***,' he said.

Trump told reporters on Thursday: 'I want my people to be honest, and if they're not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted ... If people are not honest, they're stealing from me, as president.'

The former official warned that if Democrats win the House, which forecasters increasingly see as a matter of when, not if, Trump’s aides could be subpoenaed by congressional investigators digging into who made money and how.

The White House can stonewall congressional subpoenas, but the donors and businessmen on the other end of the deals cannot, he said.

'There's someone on the opposite end of that conversation who cannot avoid getting subpoenaed, who cannot tell Congress to go f*** off like the White House can,' he said.

The former official said he had warned senior White House staff: 'Your names are going to be on a list and you're going to be subpoenaed.'

White House spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said: 'President Trump's team is strong, united, and focused on delivering his America First agenda and winning the midterms.

'Any bitter, self-serving opportunists taking cheap shots from the sidelines are simply trying to make themselves relevant.

'Their pathetic attempts to manufacture drama and distract from President Trump's historic success won't work. We're focused on the President and delivering for the American people.'

Democrats are marking down every leak for future investigations. 'For each article that drops, it's another arrow in the quiver,' the former official said.

The GOP insider said people in Trump's orbit are pushing for criminal charges against figures including Grenell and Habba.

'What this is signaling to the Democrats is that there are a lot of people that will roll over on other people,' the GOP insider said. 'I think it's a terrible signal to send.'

Races that should never have been in play are now on the board. Texas, Kansas and Iowa are Senate toss-ups, and even deep-red Mississippi and South Carolina have shifted toward Democrats. In the House, the Cook Political Report has moved dozens of seats left this month alone.

A White House insider said that the alleged corruption has become a weapon for Democrats on the trail.

'It's becoming a major issue. I didn't think that it was a few weeks ago,' the insider said. 'Democrats have been very successful in planting in people's minds that the Trump family's gotten crazy rich over this administration.'

'Voters are like, "What the f***? I'm struggling, and this SOB and his family are getting crazy wealthy,"' the insider added.

The White House insider said Wiles' rivals smell blood as Republican fortunes slide.

'People in Trump's orbit who have something to gain with her being gone are ganging up on Susie because of the midterms,' the insider said.

'Heavy lies the crown. It would not be shocking if Susie ends up having to face the music from this whole entire thing, because she's the lady in charge and it's her team. No one works there without her blessing,' the insider added.

But the White House insider said Trump would struggle to cut her loose. 'He loves Susie. He has a really deep personal relationship with her,' the insider said. 'It might actually be very painful for Trump, because he does not like to confront the people he has a very close relationship with.'

Trump has made a show of standing by Wiles, handing her a new role co-leading a White House women's health task force at a Rose Garden signing last week.

'Susie recently won her battle against a very tough opponent, breast cancer,' Trump said. 'It wasn't easy. We went through it, we got her through it, and she got through it, and she's tough.'

Pointing to reporting on Wiles, White House spokeswoman Alvarez told the Daily Mail that 'reporting based on anonymous “sources” has proven to be fake and made up, as evidenced by Politico’s embarrassing and shameful retraction.'

Politico corrected one of its articles about Wiles last week after the White House threatened it with 'consequences,' but has refused to change its report that Trump was weighing her replacement.

The former official doubted Trump would pull the trigger. 'Trump in Trump 1 would do that. Trump in Trump 2 says, find the scapegoat, find somebody else to blame,' he said. 'Susie has been clean as the driven snow throughout this entire process.'

James Blair and Chris LaCivita, two of Wiles' closest allies and the men running Trump's midterm operation, have not stayed quite so clean.

The pair were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each to advise the Republic of Srpska, a pro-Russian enclave in the Balkans, on its elections, the New York Times reported this month. Trump called them 'outside consultants,' but vowed to 'terminate' them if the work posed a conflict.

Blair on Friday announced that the pair have since donated their fees, said to be more than $100,000 apiece, to Trump's presidential library.

The GOP insider said there is also talk of a forensic audit into where Blair and LaCivita spent campaign money.

'Blair has been the brains behind the operation for the midterms from day one. Now he's in a foreign country, getting rich. He's pissed Trump off,' the White House insider said.

'They're clearly setting up James to be the fall guy when it all goes to s***,' the former official said.

He said Blair would be looked after, with his clients still getting access to the White House. 'In this world you don't actually eat it. You eat it publicly, but Blair's going to be fine. He's going to get everything that he needs,' he said.

Blair and LaCivita declined to comment.

The senior official said leaks have become the weapon of choice. 'When a big story leaks and it's bad for you or someone you care about, often times the way through it is to change the news cycle.'

Wiles' daughter Katie was taking heat over her own trip to the Republic of Srpska until Habba stormed into the Oval Office accusing Grenell of failing to pass on her husband's $5.6 million Kennedy Center donation. Trump phoned Grenell from the meeting to demand answers, the Daily Mail revealed. Grenell denies wrongdoing.

The Srpska story vanished almost overnight, the senior official said.

When the coverage turned on Grenell, a damaging story about Habba followed: she had allegedly been guaranteed more than $50 million by the family of a Venezuelan billionaire Trump later pardoned, the New York Times reported. Habba denies any role in the pardon.

'Now they're not talking about [Grenell's] text messages,' the senior official said. 'They're talking about Alina.'

For most of his second term, Trump's orbit has fought tooth and nail for his attention and his favor. With the president unable to run again many will soon be looking elsewhere, the sources said.

'The second the midterms [are] over you're going to see people's allegiances shift dramatically,' the senior official said.

'You're going to see people that are, like, the president is useless, who's going to be the next president? I'm going to jump on Team JD. Or will Rubio decide he's going to run?'

The senior official said loyalty to Trump had always been transactional, and a president heading into his final two years has little left to trade.

'The reason why everybody has been loyal to him is because he's useful to them. What can he do for anyone other than nothing really?'

The former official predicted the knife fight would end as abruptly as it began, when the Democrats take the House and the subpoenas start to fly. 'The moment that the investigations start, everyone will shut up,' he said.

But the senior official warned the backstabbing would only worsen as aides scramble to secure their own futures. 'That political future is going to mean pledging allegiance somewhere and destroying somebody else.'

Until then, the senior official said, Trump's aides are doing the Democrats' work for them, just days before voters head to the polls.

'All of these people have their own self-serving agendas, whether it be making their allies money, or their own future ambition,' the senior official said. 'It's quite frankly disgusting that this s*** is happening. Republicans are destroying their own.'