Rahm Emanuel Makes Dark Prediction About What Trump Will Do To The Oval Office

Rahm Emanuel has little faith in President-elect Donald Trump’s impending administration.

The ex-aide to former President Barack Obama and current U.S. ambassador to Japan sat down for a lengthy podcast interview Monday and, after analyzing why Democrats lost in last month’s election, Emanuel wagered what another Trump term will look like.

“Donald Trump is going to turn the Oval Office into eBay,” he said on “The Ezra Klein Show.”

“He is going to sell it to every special interest, and you’re going to be left paying that tab,” Emanuel continued. “And the Democratic Party is the thin blue line between the pharmaceutical industry getting everything they want or you paying everything you have.”

Emanuel certainly has experience with the workings of a White House administration: He was Obama’s chief of staff when the then-president signed into law the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank financial reforms after a housing crisis threatened to plummet the U.S. into a depression. Emanuel was mayor of Chicago for two terms after serving in the Obama administration.

He argued Monday that while Democrats are working to “protect your kids from TikTok” and being “controlled by the Chinese,” in an iffy example aiming to illustrate the party’s concern over digital security, the GOP will use the White House as a profit-driven business.

Trump recently vowed to impose massive tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada on his first day back in office. He argues the moves would boost American manufacturing — but many economists say they would only worsen already troubling domestic inflation.

“And whoever pays the highest price will get what they want, and you’ll be left paying through the nose,” Emanuel continued.

He also joined a chorus of pundits and politicians in sharing his take on the election, saying Trump won because “70% of the country thinks the economy is bad” and “the country’s headed in the wrong direction,” which paved the way for his brand of populism.

“Donald Trump … is a threat to democracy,” Emanuel told Klein.

He then argued that two moments have shaped our current political reality: the Iraq War, a “failed endeavor” costing thousands of lives and a trillion dollars, as well as a near-depression “the elite and the top of society” never really had to personally contend with.

“And we’re lied to, and nobody — and I mean nobody — is ever held accountable,” he said.

Klein pushed back against that line to note Emanuel himself was at the helm as Obama’s chief of staff when wars continued to rage in Iraq and Afghanistan and the banks were bailed out as working-class people suffered through a recession.

Emanuel didn’t dispute the notion, and answered simply: “Totally.”