Sunday, September 1, 2019

Another shoe drops on Madeleine Westerhout's firing



That could explain his "warning" tweet.  Of course, he may have assumed she signed one.
Ms. Westerhout attended the dinner with Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman. After he left, she began to tell reporters about Mr. Trump’s eating habits; his youngest son, Barron Trump; and his thoughts about the weight and appearance of his daughter Tiffany Trump, according to a group of current and former administration officials who were told what happened.

[...]

[I]t took over a week for the information to reach the president. It was delivered to him by Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, who said Ms. Westerhout had indiscreetly discussed details of his family with reporters.

An ambivalent Mr. Trump had to be persuaded throughout the day Thursday that Ms. Westerhout, who was on vacation in California, needed to resign, which she did that night.

[...]

As he left Washington for Camp David on Friday afternoon, soon after details of Ms. Westerhout’s comments were first reported by Politico, Mr. Trump said Ms. Westerhout had been drinking when she “said things about my children” to reporters. He praised Ms. Westerhout’s work in the White House and admonished reporters for breaking an off-the-record agreement.

“But still, you don’t say things like she said,” the president added of Ms. Westerhout, “which were just a little bit hurtful to some people.”

[...]

In recent months, Ms. Westerhout had become more interested in traveling with the president, and in Bedminster, it was noticed at a campaign briefing that she was seated closer to Mr. Trump than was his chief of staff.

  NYT
He liked her.
Ms. Westerhout’s main responsibilities were answering the phone and providing clerical help to the president. But her role was tailored to Mr. Trump’s particular eccentricities. Whenever he held an event at the White House, it fell to Ms. Westerhout to make sure that it was well attended, according to one White House official.

[...]

If there was any question that the room appeared [less than] full, Ms. Westerhout would make sure to find staff members or interns to send to it to avoid Mr. Trump’s anger at lackluster attendance.

[...]

The president had grown to trust her and had grown fond of her. According to Mr. Alberta’s book, Mr. Trump would refer to Ms. Westerhout as “my beautiful beauty.” She was often at his side on trips to Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., resort, where she would accept gifts on behalf of Mr. Trump and trade business cards with his supporters. Some of them knew that if they wanted to reach the president by phone, they could bypass his other gatekeepers and go directly to her.

But she also had a fairly large coterie of enemies, including some in the East Wing — the purview of the first lady, Melania Trump — which viewed her with suspicion.

[...]

[C]urrent and former officials also expressed alarm about what information Ms. Westerhout could share down the road, not just about the president, but about her colleagues.

Adding to the concern was the fact that, unlike most other officials, Ms. Westerhout was not thought to have signed a nondisclosure agreement.

[...]

At least one publishing house on Friday had discussions about trying to approach Ms. Westerhout for a book, according to one person familiar with the discussions.
Madeleine is going to get rich.

Will we have to wait until she gets that book deal to know what she said about Trump's eating habits and Barron, or will somebody leak it before she gets the chance?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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