Mark Meadows only recently officially left his seat in Congress and assumed the position of President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, but he’s reportedly already having quite a tough time at his new job. In short, no matter who happens to occupy the role of White House chief of staff, the actual organizational culture in the White House hinges squarely on the president’s whims. Meadows has reportedly cried in front of his fellow staffers at least twice over the tumult that he has faced and been tasked to deal with.
"Even Mr. Meadows’s allies have described him as reeling from the reality that working for the president is different than being Mr. Trump’s phone confidant."
The President's fourth Chief of Staff thought it was going to be different with him. https://t.co/K1VnSWYeyc
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) April 16, 2020
It’s not like there’s some orderly system in which Meadows can assume a role of dutifully carrying out the administration’s policies. Instead, there’s a wreck of a system in which Trump repeatedly and consistently pushes the fleeting whims of his personal agenda, no matter what staffer he has to overrule.
"At times Meadows, who is known among colleagues to frequently show emotion, has gone from yelling to crying in front of staffers including the president's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner."
Trump has never liked criers. Tick, tick, tick….https://t.co/mFWVhdFvG2
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) April 17, 2020
The New York Times reports:
‘[Meadows has been] overwhelmed at times by a permanent culture at the White House that revolves around the president’s moods… no matter who serves as chief of staff, the lack of formal processes and the constant infighting are unavoidable facts of life for those working for Mr. Trump.’
Some folks close to White House taking note that POTUS event yesterday took place under new chief-of-staff Mark Meadows, ostensibly brought in to get the building under control, etc. Instead, the person he took aim at, Stephanie Grisham, now has more power as FLOTUS chief.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 14, 2020
And that’s led to the at least two incidents in which Meadows has devolved into tears while meeting with White House staff, including Jared Kushner.
The Times adds:
‘On both occasions, Mr. Meadows was discussing staffing changes, according to the people briefed on the events. A White House spokesman declined to comment on either meeting. A person close to Mr. Kushner said he denied that any such episode involving him ever took place.’
Meadows replaced Mick Mulvaney and is the fourth person to occupy the role of White House chief of staff in an ostensibly permanent capacity. He’s assumed his new job amidst the ongoing Coronavirus crisis, which the president and his team have repeatedly insisted that the White House has handled superbly, no matter the fact that well over 30,000 Americans are dead after the president waited a month to even issue national social distancing guidelines.
Trump has been attempting to rewrite the history of his virus response. To that end, this past week, he announced that the administration would be suspending U.S. financial contributions to the World Health Organization because of their supposedly China-centric response to the Coronavirus. In reality, Trump himself relied on Chinese accounts of their virus response in the early days of the pandemic, and he’s trying to find a scapegoat for his own failures.
On January 24, Trump tweeted:
‘China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!’
President Trump says U.S. is pulling funding to WHO because the group praised China's "transparency."
Below is President Trump's tweet from January 24 praising China's transparency. https://t.co/zVew3c212c
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 14, 2020
These are the kinds of issues that Meadows has been left to deal with. Trump’s last chief of staff, Mulvaney, actually himself got embroiled in a major scandal thanks to his role in orchestrating the president’s attempt to use military aid for Ukraine as leverage to bribe the country into investigating the Bidens. Something similar may be on the deck for Meadows.
