What's gotten into Jake Tapper? The formerly fine journalist, since turned swamp thing has spewed out a doozy of a criticism for President Trump over his dinner guests on Twitter:

So you’re the president of the United States of America. You can dine with literally anyone you want to. Titans of industry. Geniuses of the arts. Tech wizards changing everything. World leaders and humanitarian saints. https://t.co/XIXzheba6Y

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 10, 2018

Cripes, what a thing to criticize him on. I hadn't seen this until now, as a result of  Mike Allen, writing in Axios, who seems to approve as a leading member of the swamp speaking for the swamp sensibility, and adds that Trump dines with guys like boxing promoter Don King, too, (clutching his pearls).

As President Trump increasingly tunes out formal advisers, there's a growing list of misfits and hangers-on that he just can’t seem to quit — and whose advice he seems to welcome and even adopt.

Why it matters: Trump is successfully resisting the West Wing bubble that tended to imprison his predecessors. But he fills his time and mind with colorful, marginal thinkers who reinforce his instincts rather than broadening his horizon — comfort food, rather than nutrition.

• The WashPost reports on A1 today: "Trump began the past workweek cutting into steaks at the White House residence on Monday night with his political soldiers, including former advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, strategist Brad Parscale, and son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner."
• "He ended it dining on the gilded patio of his Mar-a-Lago estate with eccentric boxing promoter Don King, who said he vented to the president about the Stormy Daniels saga."
• Last month, The Daily Beast reported a Trump dinner with Fox News host Jesse Watters and former White House gadfly Seb "Dr. G" Gorka because “he couldn’t get enough of them on TV.

First, Trump's actual choice of dinner guests, at least in the instance that so upset Tapper, is not bereft of merit in the slightest. Seb Gorka, for one, has a Ph.D. from a European university and a known record of scholarship. His work has caught Trump's eye, along with Trump's pleasure at his discourse. Gorka is impressive in person, exuding both energy and brainy common sense. Quite a few Trump voters consider it a good thing that the two have stayed in touch. The story with Watters has to be similar, I don't have his academic background, but it's indisputable that he's one of Fox News's top talented broadcasters. Who doesn't enjoy watching Watters crack witticisms, or expose leftwing ignorance on the streets, other than angry leftists?

But just let's assume that Gorka and Watters were not at the top of their fields as Tapper alleges.

Why, exactly, should Trump shut himself off from the people and focus exclusively on America's elites, the way Obama did? How'd that work out for Obama's presidency? Obama constantly had the titans of industry, the elites, such as Mark Zuckerberg, over to the White House, the very Zuckerberg who shuts himself off in a gated community and flies private jets. Why would Trump want to do that? How would associating with a guy like Zuck improve his job performance? If anything, hanging out with the Davos crowd for extended periods of time would seal him off from the concerns of ordinary Americans badly, and turn him into another Democratic Party-style Marie Antoinette. Hanging out with a guy like Don King, who, whatever you think of him, is an expert promoter, might just keep him in touch with things ordinary people consider important (such as the nightmare of Obamacare), which even Allen seems to recognize a little.

The disgusting thing about the world's elites is that they are all this private club, intermingled with one another constantly. The arts community is mingled with the titans of industry and the tech giants as well as, kiss-kiss, the Hollywood bigs. Trump's populism was a defiance of that bubble, a way of breaking out of the 'best people' glass dome and kicking away their groupthink.

Here's the other thing about Tapper's lousy, if revealing tweet: Obama didn't always dine out with elites to make himself look good - he dined out with gangsta rappaz and pop-tart singers such as Beyonce, with nary a word of criticism from Tapper. Double standard, anyone?

President Trump should go right on breaking the stifling rules of 'polite' society as Tapper sees it, and dining with the people he likes. There's a reason his popularity is rising.