Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s Secretary, Plays ‘Key’ Presidential Gatekeeper Role
Madeleine Westerhout, President Donald Trump’s young personal secretary, has emerged as a “key” gatekeeper for the commander-in-chief, with her name being dropped in a Bob Woodward transcript released Tuesday, according to the Washington Post.
In the transcript of a phone conversation between Trump and Woodward, the famed journalist who just published a scathing book about the Trump administration titled Fear, Woodward complained about his failed attempts to set up an interview, the newspaper stated.
“I never got a call,” Trump told Woodward in the transcript, according to the Washington Post. “I never got the message. … Did you speak to Madeleine?”
When Woodward said “no” in the August 14 call and tried to explain who he did talk with to set up an interview, Trump stepped in.
“Madeleine is the key,” Trump said. “She’s the secret. Because she’s the person.”
Westerhout, 27, had been keeping a low profile in the White House before the transcript was release. The revelation, though, brought plenty of inquiries about Trump’s personal secretary who began working with him after the campaign.
Her Twitter account is filled with retweets of Sarah Sander, Alex Azar and Trump himself. Her last personal tweet on the account appears to be June 14 when she wished Trump a happy birthday.
Westerhout, a California native, earned a political science bachelor’s degree from South Carolina’s College of Charleston in 2013 and moved to Washington, D.C., according the New York Daily News. She later joined the Republican National Committee as an assistant to -then-chief of staff Katie Walsh after spending a brief time as a fitness trainer, the newspaper stated. That job opened the doorway to join Trump’s transition team after the 2016 election.
The Daily News wrote that she was given the title “elevator girl” after she was spotted regularly taking visitors to the elevator at Trump Tower to see the future president before he officially took office. That is where she was first noticed in numerous photographs during the transition.
BTW, if you've been watching C-SPAN #ElevatorCam non-stop and wondering who is greeting guests, it's Madeleine Westerhout @madwestt of RNC. pic.twitter.com/LwHSrUTbp1
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) November 29, 2016
“So it started when we just began scheduling these meetings, and obviously, there’s a lot of security outside, so Katie (Walsh) wanted me to make sure that these important people got inside the building and where they needed to be,” Westerhout said in a rare interview with CNN in December, 2016.
“And then the president-elect wanted to make sure all of his meetings were very transparent, so it became a little bit more public than I originally thought it was going to be,” she continued.
She became “executive assistant to the president” after the transition, the Daily News noted. According to White House records, per the Washington Post, Westerhout pulls in $130,000 for the secretary/gatekeeper gig.
She celebrated her first day in office with a tweet, the president’s favorite form of communication.
In March, she tweeted out another photo, showing her enthusiasm for Trump’s team.
