US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pushed out a senior adviser after first lady Melania Trump demanded her sacking, with more heads set to roll in a White House reshuffle triggered by infighting and setbacks in the midterm elections.
Melania Trump on Tuesday made the extremely rare demand for US Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel to be fired, saying: “She no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House.”
The move followed a falling out that press leaks say was partly linked to a dispute over seating arrangements on the plane that took the first lady for a tour of African countries last month.
Ricardel was also reportedly blamed for negative news coverage of Melania Trump.
The first lady at least partially got her way on Wednesday, when White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that Ricardel “departs the White House to transition to a new role within the administration.”
The start to the second half of Donald Trump’s first term is enveloped in gloom as he surveys the damage from the midterms, tension with some of the US’ closest allies and turmoil inside the administration.
On Wednesday, he was quoted by right-wing Web site The Daily Caller saying that a wider reshuffle is coming.
“A lot of people want to come in, a lot of politicians who have had very successful careers want to come in,” he said.
The biggest name on the chopping block, according to multiple US media reports, is chief of staff John Kelly.
A retired US Marine Corps general, he has often been referred to as “the adult in the room,” even if critics say he has done little to temper the president’s most damaging outbursts.
Now Kelly’s days are numbered, according to the unconfirmed, but mounting leaks to US media.
His position, tenuous for months, has been undermined further by reports that he also clashed with Melania Trump, who was reportedly angry that Kelly had refused to promote some of her aides.
Nick Ayers, a 36-year-old chief of staff to US Vice President Mike Pence, is reportedly high on the list to replace Kelly.
Another expected reshuffle casualty is US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, a Kelly ally who oversees the politically sensitive task of carrying out Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The president told The Daily Caller he would make “a decision on homeland shortly.”
Among Nielsen’s critics has been US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who last month reportedly erupted in a shouting match with Kelly right outside the Oval Office over her performance.
Democrats vow to use their control of powerful US House of Representatives oversight committees to go after Donald Trump’s nebulous personal finances and to protect a probe into whether his 2016 election campaign colluded with Russian agents.
When Donald Trump last week suddenly replaced attorney general Jeff Sessions with a fierce critic of the Russia investigation, Matthew Whitaker, critics accused him of violating the US constitution.
The US Department of Justice on Wednesday ruled that Whitaker’s appointment is constitutional, but this will do little to calm claims that Donald Trump’s real goal is to defang the Russia probe.
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