Donald Trump fires his Deputy National Security Adviser because of Melania [updated]
For the past twelve hours there has been mainstream media buzz that Donald Trump is about to fire Homeland Security Director Kirstjen Nielsen, and for the past few hours the buzz has expanded to include the possibility that Trump will also fire Nielsen’s mentor, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Even as that plays out, Trump has in fact fired his Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel. Why? Melania.
Melania Trump and her staff apparently spent the recent Africa trip feuding with Mira Ricardel and her staff over everything from allocation of resources to airplane seating assignments, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Donald Trump ended up deciding to oust Ricardel after Melania publicly and privately called for it to happen.
Just about everyone in the Trump regime has turned out to be an inept jerk, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether Melania, Ricardel, or both are to blame for whatever went wrong here. And the WSJ article spells out that, while Melania was definitively the one who convinced Donald to make the move, there were others such as James Mattis who also didn’t get along with Ricardel.
In any case, we’ve now reached the point where the ever-indecisive Donald Trump is getting ready to can one of his own top people simply because Melania is asking him to. If Ricardel really is as awful as Melania has alleged, then Ricardel never should have been hired to begin with. This means John Bolton, recently installed as Trump’s third National Security Adviser, just lost his top deputy. Does this mean that Bolton is on his way out too? Update:: the White House now claims Ricardel has not been fired and is still sitting at her desk – but based on track record, there is no reason to take the Trump regime at its word on anything.
