President Trump casts doubt on aide’s exit
WASHINGTON » President Donald 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, once hailed for bringing discipline to the West Wing but recently at the center of his own controversies.
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, Rep. Mark Meadows 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.
As the aftershocks of the accusations against Porter reverberated for a fifth day, Trump stayed out of sight on a rainy Saturday in Washington and tweeted along while watching Fox News shows. Most West Wing offices remained dark.
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 was not authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly and 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.