First Lady Melania Trump has been throwing her weight around more when it comes to personnel decisions at the Trump White House, as she has now publicly called for the firing of top national security official Mira Ricardel after the two reportedly fought over plane seating last month.
The Daily Beast reports that Melania’s decision to weigh in on whether to fire officials is a direct reflection of the vacuum left by chief of staff John Kelly, who has largely lost whatever control he once had over the chaotic White House.
“She can be a knife fighter,” one source described as “close” to Melania tells the Daily Beast.
The publication reports that Melania’s big power grab comes at a time when “infighting among White House staff nearing Civil War-like levels,” thus reducing Kelly to being a mere “bystander” instead of a manager.
A former Trump administration official, however, tells the Daily Beast that it wouldn’t be totally fair to blame Kelly for the chaos, since there is no one who can actually maintain order within the Trump White House.
“The people who think they can go in and control things are nuts,” the official explained. “There was this whole narrative that Kelly was supposed to be ‘the guy.’ Yeah, for like an hour.”
Image: Dept. of Defense photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro via Flickr and a CC license