White House Aide Picked a Fight With Melania Trump; guess who won?
Washington, Nov 15: A transoceanic personnel crisis that engulfed the National Security Council this week is partly rooted in a bureaucratic dispute over the seating arrangements aboard first lady Melania Trump's plane to Africa last month during her maiden solo trip abroad.
As the East Wing prepared the flight manifest for the marquee trip, deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel became angry that seats on the first lady's government jet were assigned to a larger-than-usual security entourage and a small press corps with none for Ricardel or another NSC staffer, according to current U.S. officals and others familiar with the trip and its aftermath.
Bad blood between Ricardel and Melania Trump and her staff continued for weeks after the trip, with the first lady privately arguing that the NSC's No. 2 official was a corrosive influence in the White House and should be dismissed. But national security adviser John Bolton rebuffed the first lady and protected his deputy, prompting the first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, to issue an extraordinary statement to reporters Tuesday effectively calling for Ricardel's firing.
"It is the position of the Office of the first lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House," Grisham said of Ricardel in the statement.
After an uncomfortable day of limbo, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Wednesday evening that Ricardel was leaving the White House.
"Mira Ricardel will continue to support the President as she departs the White House to transition to a new role within the Administration," she said in a statement.
An NSC spokesman declined to elaborate.
The first lady's decision to publicly advocate for the ouster of a senior member of her husband's staff shows a new willingness on her part to weigh in on White House operations and marks a change from earlier in the Trump administration, when she repeatedly played down her role as an adviser to the president.
