‘Mere allegation’ devastates lives, Trump laments
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Saturday seemed to frame the downfall of a pivotal aide accused of abusing his wives as a character assassination, adding to the tumult that has engulfed the White House, splintered the staff and imperiled chief of staff John Kelly’s hold on his position.
Trump vented in a tweet that appeared to take aim at the rising #MeToo movement about sexual abuse and echoed his own denials of sexual impropriety in the face of accusations from more than a dozen women.
“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation,” Trump wrote. “Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”
His response also reflected his growing discontent with Kelly.
The president has fumed that Kelly was too slow in bringing the allegations against staff secretary Rob Porter to his attention. That has added to Trump’s frustrations about the chief of staff ’s attempts to control him and Kelly’s recent inflammatory comments about immigrants, according to two people who speak to the president regularly but are not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.
The two strong-willed men have clashed and Trump has begun floating possible names for a future chief of staff in conversations with outside advisers, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. Among the names being considered: Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
But there was no sign that a move was imminent, according to the people with knowledge of the conversations. Trump is known to frequently poll his advisers about the performance of senior staff and is often reluctant to actually fire aides.
Kelly has indicated he would step aside if he lost the faith of the president. But he has not offered to resign, according to a White House official who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.
But Kelly’s hold on his post seemed the shakiest since he took the job in July, in part because several West Wing aides have had their faith shaken by his handling of the Porter accusations. At a senior staff meeting on Friday, Kelly tried to push his own timeline concerning Porter. Some aides in that meeting privately questioned Kelly’s account, thinking his version of events was selfserving, according to one official with knowledge of the meeting.
Kelly has said he found out only Tuesday night that the accusations against Porter were true and he was gone immediately. That clashes with the events of Tuesday night, when the White House released a statement of support for Porter from Kelly, who had initially urged his right-handman to remain in his post. The chief of staff said Friday that the decision was made before photos of one of Porter’s exwives with a black eye were published.
Other White House officials have said it was the release of the photos Wednesday morning that sealed Porter’s fate. The staff secretary resigned later Wednesday.
On Friday, a second White House staffer, speechwriter David Sorensen, resigned as a result of abuse allegations.
As the aftershocks of the accusations against Porter reverberated for a fifth day, many White House senior staff members remained stunned by the allegations against the well-liked and seemingly mildmannered graduate of Harvard and Oxford. When the accusations first emerged against Porter, who downplayed the claims from two ex-wives, a number of senior aides rallied around him, and the White House acknowledged that personal relationships may have played a role in their response.
Communications Director Hope Hicks, who was dating the staff secretary, helped draft the original statements defending him, according to three current and former White House officials. Deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said Hicks later “recused” herself from some aspects of the matter.
The fallout from the Porter resignation also cast a spotlight on White House counsel Don McGahn, who was apprised of at least some of the accusations about the staff secretary at least four times, including as early as January 2017.
Porter’s departure, along with Kelly under fire, could deprive the West Wing of some of its steadier hands and worried some staffers that the sense of order that been installed in recent months could evaporate.