Somehow, he always assumed he’d enjoy this gig more…Gabriel Sherman, at Vanity Fair, reports Fuming in the West Wing, Trump Prepares to Defenestrate Cuck Allies and Go Full MAGA”:
[Spoiler alert: It will look like chaos. Because it will *be* chaos.]Even before he decided to launch a trade war and roll the nuclear dice by agreeing in the course of a West Wing afternoon to a risky sit-down with Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump was telling friends he was tired of being reined in. “I’m doing great, but I’m getting all these bad headlines,” Trump told a friend recently. A Republican in frequent contact with the White House told me Trump is “frustrated by all these people telling him what to do.”
With the departures of Hope Hicks and Gary Cohn, the Trump presidency is entering a new phase—one in which Trump is feeling liberated to act on his impulses. “Trump is in command. He’s been in the job more than a year now. He knows how the levers of power work. He doesn’t give a fuck,” the Republican said. Trump’s decision to circumvent the policy process and impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum reflects his emboldened desire to follow his impulses and defy his advisers. “It was like a fuck-you to Kelly,” a Trump friend said. “Trump is red-hot about Kelly trying to control him.”
According to five Republicans close to the White House, Trump has diagnosed the problem as having the wrong team around him and is looking to replace his senior staff in the coming weeks. “Trump is going for a clean reset, but he needs to do it in a way that’s systemic so it doesn’t look like it’s chaos,” one Republican said…
…Sources said that the first officials to go will be Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom Trump has clashed with for months. On Tuesday, Trump met with John Bolton in the Oval Office. When he plans to visit Mar-a-Lago next weekend, Trump is expected to interview more candidates for both positions, according to two sources…
Next on the departure list are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Trump remains fiercely loyal to his family, but various distractions have eroded their efficacy within the administration. Both have been sidelined without top-secret security clearances by Kelly, and sources expect them to be leaving at some point in the near future. One scenario being discussed is that Kushner would return to New York to oversee Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign with his ally Brad Parscale, who was hand-selected by the Trump family…
People who have spoken with Trump said his reset is being driven in part by the looming midterms, and he’s been fielding advice from Corey Lewandowski and Dave Bossie. They’ve counseled him to return to his 2016 campaign message. Another source said Trump has felt newfound validation after a CPAC straw poll last month showed him with a 93 percent approval rating. “He felt the crowd desiring more,” a Republican close to the White House said. “He knows there’s going to be a battle ahead.”…
CoS: Newt
Economic Adviser: Kudlow
NatSec Adviser: Bolton
Communications Director: Mooch
White House Counsel: Pirro https://t.co/fvFF1o3m1A— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 9, 2018
Trump dined with Seb Gorka and Fox News’ Jesse Watters at the White House this week because “he couldn’t get enough of them on TV,” as one source put it to The Daily Beast. https://t.co/hxbGElkYY4
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 10, 2018
The nazi tryhard with warrants and a 50-year old frat boy. This'd be a pathetic guest list for Rob Schneider's house https://t.co/6pjgNvgtKL
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) March 10, 2018
Saturday Morning Cartoon Characters Open ThreadPost + Comments (169)