Donald Trump is now reportedly getting around chief of staff John Kelly’s stricter rules by giving staffers direct assignments and instructing them not to share details of the job with Kelly.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump pulls off his masterplan by calling staffers to his residence in the evenings, presumably when it is less likely they might bump into Kelly.
The WSJ adds there have been times when aides have decided not to honor Trump’s instruction out of fear they might end up on Kelly’s bad side.
The newspaper added there have also been instances where friends of Trump will get a message to him through first lady Melania Trump.
“If I don’t want to wait 24 hours for a call from the president, getting to Melania is much easier,” one person said.
Since news of the Melania Trump conspiracy became public, a spokeswoman for the first lady has dismissed it as “more fake news.”
The first lady’s spokesperson added, “these are more anonymous sources peddling things that just aren’t true. The first lady is focused on her own work in the East Wing,” the spokeswoman said.
Kelly, who joined the administration earlier this year, used his first press conference as an official member of the cabinet to diffuse talk of friction between he and Trump.
At the time, he insisted he had no plans of leaving his post, while acknowledging his new position is “the hardest job I’ve ever had.”
Kelly’s job doesn’t figure to get any easier anytime soon as special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling heats up in the wake of former national security adviser’s Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
Amid that backdrop, Senator Richard Blumenthal warned during a recent segment of MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes , that Congress must protect special counsel Mueller from being fired by Trump.
“We proposed legislation that would stop [Trump] from firing the special counsel, and it would shield the special counsel from any sort of political interference, which now seems increasingly threatening,” Blumenthal said.
Part of Flynn’s plea deal stipulates that he fully cooperate with Mueller’s ongoing probe. He will also reportedly testify against members of the Trump family and White House officials.
