As the campaign to solve the mystery of the anonymous op-ed printed in The New York Times plays out, Trump is said to be “punch drunk,” “rip sh*t,” and “hit so hard.” Insiders say that Trump has been insisting that the only people he can trust is his family, and two members of his family believe they’ve already figured it out.
As chaos erupts in the West Wing, Jared and Ivanka have blamed John Kelly: "He's destroying your presidency," one source says Ivanka told Trump https://t.co/rIGVmiYavt
— The Hive (@VFHIVE) September 7, 2018
According to Vanity Fair:
‘With Trump so far unable to execute a strategy to stanch the drip-drip-drip of damaging disclosures, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have taken the lead in getting control of the crisis. (The Washington Post reported that Trump said the only people he could trust were his family.) Earlier this week, they told Trump they were deeply troubled by the accounts in Woodward’s book and blamed Chief of Staff John Kelly for many of the leaks, an outside adviser close to them told me. “‘He’s destroying your presidency,’” Ivanka told her father, the outside adviser, who was briefed on the conversation, said. Their hunt for the author of the Times op-ed may bring them into the final chapter of their long-running feud with Kelly.’
Lots of Trump admin officials spotted at McCain funeral, including:
-John Kelly
-Jim Mattis
-Ivanka Trump
-Jared Kushner
-Elaine Chao
-Amb. Jon Huntsman
-Amb. Woody Johnson— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) September 1, 2018
Their theory fingers Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly’s deputy chief of staff, Zachary Fuentes. The upcoming release of Bob Woodward’s new book Fear: Trump in the White House includes numerous quotes from Kelly referring to the president as “an idiot.” Its likely this is the evidence that Jared and Ivanka could be using as backup for their theory, although there is also a history of the chief of staff showing distaste for the presence of the president’s daughter and son-in-law in the White House well before Woodward’s book was penned.
I think my favorite part of the anonymous White House staffer op-ed is it could have been written by anybody — Jared, Ivanka, John Kelly, Mattis — with the exception that it definitely wasn’t Stephen Miller. https://t.co/DUpgYBRZ76
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) September 5, 2018
The theory that Kelly may have gone rogue and be working independently of Trump also aligns with leaks from former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who released tapes recorded inside the situation room when Kelly informed her that she was being fired. On that tape, Kelly can be heard telling Omarosa, “the staff and everyone on the staff works for me, not the President.”
Jared and Ivanka have told people they suspect John Kelly and his deputy because Kelly is the only one with a big enough ego to convince himself he’s saving the country. Trump, according to an outside adviser, disagreed https://t.co/gMGy0r40rd
— Benjamin Landy (@Ben_Landy) September 7, 2018
Featured image via Flickr by Subdude street art, Shoreditch under a Creative Commons license