Trump’s Friends Are Advising Him That He Doesn’t Need Advisers
President Donald Trump’s top-level appointees are leaving the White House in exodus, either through their own volition or with brute force. But fear not: the voices in the president’s telephone are telling him he doesn’t need those officials anyway.
The commander in chief is reportedly being told by the friends he frequently speaks with on phone calls that there’s no need to replace White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (her last day is this week) and Chief of Staff John Kelly, should he decide to remove him from the administration. What’s worse, is that he actually might be starting to believe them.
Via CNN:
Trump has expressed frustration at the management structure in the West Wing, believing it doesn’t suit the freewheeling style he employed as a businessman. And he’s persistently annoyed by headlines and television coverage of his presidency. After a year in office, he’s more willing to change long-established West Wing structures, people familiar with his thinking say.
It isn’t always clear who Trump has spoken with on any given day, though reports indicate the president typically leans on “outside advisers” for tips on how to run his White House, as well as to see how his base may perceive reports coming out of the West Wing.
He called multiple friends after referring to Haiti and other nations as “shithole countries,” believing the comments would go over well with his most loyal supporters, according to
one conservative columnist. He also continues to speak with former White House advisers and Trump campaign officials, including former campaign manager
Corey Lewandowski. Trump dined with Lewandowski on Monday night in the residency,
Bloomberg reported Thursday, despite Kelly saying he was only allowed on White House grounds if the chief of staff was escorting him personally.
Trump’s phone buddies reportedly create a web of more than two dozen billionaires and influential figures. When the president calls one of them, they often loop each other in on details surrounding their conversations, and where Trump’s head is at.
“Everything he does is strategic, especially his many relationships and constant communication with a vast network of individuals,” Hicks said in an April statement to CNN.
Trump doesn’t have any official plans to oust Kelly as of this moment. That said, the president has been known to make impromptu firings, most recently announcing the expected — albeit surprising — departure of Veterans affairs Secretary
David Shulkin via Twitter on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Hicks appears to be Trump’s one that got away: multiple outlets are reporting the the 29-year-old is virtually irreplaceable in Trump’s eyes, serving as his adviser, confidante and closest aid all at once.
“She’s the glue to the entire place,” one White House source told
CBS News. “She helps keep the White House from fracturing. I don’t think people realize what’s about to happen once she leaves.”
