The Trump administration has brought a fresh and exhausting sense of chaos to American political life. In previous years, the senior staff of the White House, while not exactly anonymous, has been cloaked securely in boredom. Americans always knew that the president was surrounded by advisers, but with a few exceptions—George W. Bush’s Karl Rove and Barack Obama’s David Axelrod—most of his shadowy figures don’t become famous in their own right.
That’s not the case in Donald Trump’s White House. Thanks to constant leaks, the workplace politics of what sounds like a pretty ugly workplace has spilled into public view. Chief-of-staff Reince Priebus is hanging by a thread! Press secretary Sean Spicer is about to get fired! Top advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon are at war! Is Ivanka Trump’s influence waxing or waning? Do Trump’s top national security people even know what’s going on?
Videos by VICE
But even the sources transmitting this juicy gossip to the press don’t know how all this palace intrigue will shake out. How could they, when their famously mercurial boss’s whims change from day to day and tweet to tweet?
So we talked to someone who does know the future: ELLE UK’s resident astrologer Stefanie Weiss of the Saturn Sisters. She was happy to use her knowledge of the stars to offer insights into how the different personalities of the Trump White House are clashing, and whose signs were set to rise next. Here’s what she had to say:
Donald Trump
Gemini. Born: June 14, 1946
With Geminis there’s the basic duplicitousness of everything. His sun is conjunct with Uranus. It’s in his 10th house. That has a lot to say about his relationship with his father and his relationship to the idea of power. Something about his childhood being really, really erratic and him not being able to depend upon what he viewed as security.
But he has really serious mommy issues with his Saturn conjunct with Venus, which translates to issues with women in general, being completely unable to separate what he believes to be attraction and hatred, or blaming them for everything that’s wrong—or if you want to get really deep, blaming them for why he doesn’t love himself. That’s the deeper psychological portrait of this man who is in charge of the free world.
Even though he has overt rage, he also has repressed rage. So all the rage we see isn’t even all of it. His Mars and his Pluto are both hanging out in his 12th house but kind of hidden, so I can’t even imagine what the untapped rage actually looks like. He’s definitely capable of violence; it’s very scary, the sun Uranus is also opposite his moon.
In terms of what’s coming up for him, this is good news for the rest of us. There are two eclipses coming up. A lot of the inner circle have similar problems in their charts coming up in August, like all of them going down together. I’m trying to look at it as who’s going to get away and who’s going to jail.
Adviser Steve Bannon
Sagittarius. Born: November 27, 1953
You look at the SNL version of Bannon, as the grim reaper—that’s what his chart is. He knows where the bodies are buried because he buried them. Sun in Sagittarius wouldn’t give you that information, but when you look at an astrology chart, his moon is conjunctive with Pluto. He’s got Venus, Mercury, and Saturn in Scorpio. He’s definitely got major mommy issues as well, some serious darkness in his psyche from back in the day.
What I think is most salient here is that he is deeply implicated in the August eclipse as well. His moon-Pluto conjunction is going be directly impacted in the second eclipse, so it’s very emotionally painful. For a normal person, that would mean some sort of major loss. For a person like Steve Bannon, I don’t know what you would call that, but it’s a major impact. His life is going to change markedly. It’s opening a deep, old wound. It has everything to do with loss.
The other way he’s being impacted is that Saturn is fucking up his shit. The same week we have the eclipse, Saturn is stationing, going out of retrograde. That is a very impactful moment in people’s charts. It’s hitting his sun and Jupiter. He’s so power-hungry right now, but it looks like it’s all going to come crashing down. This man’s stored up karma—that chicken is coming home to roost.
Watch: What Trump got wrong in his speech on climate change
Vice President Mike Pence
Gemini. Born: June 7, 1959
Pence is pure duplicity. He has Mercury, and his sun is in Gemini. He’s just a walking lie. Both the eclipses we have—the first one at the beginning of August—is actually hitting him pretty hard, in terms of the way people perceive him. I don’t know if it’s because we’re going further down the line of succession or because he’s inheriting a lot of responsibility, but August is not an easy month for him either.
Basically, it means there will be lots of change. Eclipses tend to have an affect geographically. If the eclipse is visible on a certain continent, you think of it as affecting that continent. Eclipses have rarely been visible on our continent in recent years, but this one happens to be very visible on our continent, which means it will affect our continent. People were calling this the American eclipse even before Trump won the election.
I’m not seeing terrorism or anything like that. Just big changes for the country.
First Lady Melania Trump
Taurus. Born: April 26, 1970
She’s all about the Benjamins. I can’t see what else she cares about. She is all Taurus. She has the sun, Saturn, Mercury, and Venus all in Taurus, and moon in Capricorn. Clearly that’s why she’s involved in this. That’s not to malign people who have a Taurus sun, but she has a massive concentration of Taurus, which means she loves luxury, beauty, and wealth.
I thought she would have a very secretive chart—I expected her to have heavy Scorpio—but she doesn’t really. All she has going on is this money thing.
I don’t have a birth time for her, so I’m doing what’s called a noon chart. I can see where her planets are, but I can’t see what her ascendant is, but I have a feeling she’s a Scorpio ascendant, which is why she seems so blank and secretive. But without her birth time, I can’t know for sure.
Adviser and Son-in-Law Jared Kushner
Capricorn. Born: January 10, 1981
When you have a lot of Capricorn in your chart, you’re driven. He wants to be in charge of everything. Pluto is conjunct with his sun right now, which means a major transformation. Your old life disappearing. It eviscerates everything that came before.
The eclipse that happened in February, and the eclipse coming up in August are directly implicated in the nodes of his chart. The nodes are basically where the eclipses were when we’re born, and they’re all about karma. So a karmic vortex opened in his chart this past January, and it explodes again this August.
Counselor Kellyanne Conway
Aquarius/Capricorn cusp. Born: January 20, 1967
There was nothing on Kellyanne’s chart that spoke directly to the eclipse. We don’t have her birth time. Her Venus is being impacted by the eclipse, so maybe it’s not a good look for her, but it’s not necessarily like her life is falling apart and she’s never going to recover. This is something she’ll get over and move onto something else.
There’s nothing terribly nefarious about her natal chart that I’m seeing. There’s nothing that explains why she would get involved with the Trump administration. It’s unclear. She’s the final degree of Capricorn, so there’s definitely something about power and money going with her.
Adviser and Daughter Ivanka Trump
Scorpio. Born: October 30, 1981
Her chart is shaped really weird. She’s got all her planets in one little corner of the chart. You see charts every now and again, but it’s unusual. She’s Scorpio with a lot of Libra. Her presentation is concealing something really dark. It’s all about being pretty and hidden secrets. In terms of the eclipses, she doesn’t seem to have any direct planetary involvement. She doesn’t have anything in Leo or Aquarius. You would have to dig much deeper to see how she’s affected by this. It almost makes me think—is she going to leave and go back to New York before August? It seems like she slips under the radar.
The only thing that’s happening for her in August is that Saturn is stationing on her Neptune. There’s not a lot of clarity around it. We don’t really know how she gets off, but she sort of nebulously slips away into a cloud of ether.
Adviser Stephen Miller
Virgo/Leo cusp. Born: August 23, 1985
He has a serial killer chart. He has a very similar early childhood psychological profile to Trump. Trump has it with his father, and Stephen Miller has it with his mother. Some kind of upheaval early on in life—Stephen Miller has major mommy issues, abandonment issues, which is why he’s built his life around not being able to get a date. Lots of anger and volatility. He has a bad temper and a relentless drive to be in power, regardless of consequences.
The only thing he has that’s being hit directly by the eclipse in August is his Mars. That represents his drive and energy, so maybe he gets really tired or steps away. But he’s definitely exhausted. His moon is involved in the Saturn station, so what I’m seeing for him is pure exhaustion, but it’s not like his entire life is exploding. It’s not the end of his career.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Capricorn. Born: December 24, 1946
He’s all Capricorn—sun, Mars, moon—so he’s totally power obsessed. Totally, totally, totally. In terms of August, his Saturn is completely impacted by the first eclipse. In some ways, it’s another chicken coming home to roost situation. His moon and his sun aren’t impacted, so he’s not getting hit as hard as Trump and Bannon. He’s getting something. Saturn is considered the planet of law, so the law is coming to get him.
I’m not seeing jail or death, but definitely, receiving some sort of sanction for things he’s done in the past. Going forward into early next year, in January 2018, is when things get really rough for him. That’s when Saturn starts going over his natal planets. That’s when he leaves politics.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer
Virgo/Libra cusp. Born: September 23, 1971
Spicer has three planets in Virgo, so he’s way more Virgo than Libra. I don’t have his birth time, so I can’t say for sure whether he’s a Virgo, but it’s likely. His nodes are in Leo and Aquarius, so something is rumbling for him in August, but they’re not close enough to the second eclipse to make me think he’s in any kind of danger. The first eclipse is a shake-up for him, but the real deal stuff for the administration is coming at the end of the month and that doesn’t hit him as hard. Maybe, Trump pushes him out. Maybe he leaves. The worst of it he’s clear from.
He doesn’t have anything in his chart that’s super nefarious or stark or evil, like Bannon and Miller do. In some ways, he’s an empty vessel. He’s not full of the energy of any sign; he’s either at the end or the beginning. He’s just looking for people to tell him what to do.
Former FBI Director James Comey
Sagittarius. Born: December 14, 1960
I don’t know if this is because Comey is the one who ends up taking them all down or what, but his sun is 22 degrees of Sagittarius. That Saturn station is exactly on his sun at the end of August. There’s something rumbling for him at that time, though it’s hard to know exactly what that is. People are paying attention to Comey at that time.
If I read his chart not knowing who he was, I’d think he was some sort of detective. He’s got planets in both Scorpio and Virgo, and that combination is always someone who’s looking to get to the bottom of things, searching for mysteries and facts. There are some big ego aspects to his chart as well. He always wants to be at the top of his game, and he wants to be in charge.
Trump’s sun is 22 degrees of Gemini, exactly the opposite of Comey’s sun. They’re like mirror images of each other. I can’t believe Trump has the opposite ascendant of Obama and the opposite sun of Comey. It couldn’t be more perfect.
