People are still fascinated – bizarrely fascinated – by this Melania Trump-Mira Ricardel story. From what I’m seeing, Ricardel really was fired, although it didn’t happen immediately after Melania’s office publicly torched her on Tuesday. According to the NYT, Ricardel did pack up her office on Wednesday, but she’s being transitioned over to some other position in the administration. Maybe. Ricardel was the deputy national security advisor, an important position within the National Security Council, and a driver of foreign policy and more. And Melania wanted her fired, allegedly because of Ricardel beefing with some members of Melania’s staff. The New York Times did a follow-up story on what really went down:
Aides pointed out that Ricardel was one of the highest-ranking female members of the administration, and that she had never met Mrs. Trump. It turns out she didn’t have to. A dust-up between Ms. Ricardel and several East Wing senior staff members before and during the first lady’s trip to Africa last month ended up eliciting Mrs. Trump’s attention, and the conflict led to an internal dispute that festered for weeks.
Among Ms. Ricardel’s offenses, three people familiar with the situation said, was a dispute over airplane seating — she wanted to have a say over who was given seats on the plane to Africa. She grew angry when a seat for a National Security Council staff member on the plane was pulled to accommodate journalists. Ms. Ricardel also withheld resources from the first lady before she traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Egypt last month, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Before and during the trip, Mrs. Trump’s senior staff members operated without logistical information, readily available policy documents or basic communication as they arrived in places where security could be tight and tense, and the movements hectic. They said Ms. Ricardel was the reason for the delay.
The episode so incensed Mrs. Trump that she brought up those infractions and others — including her belief that Ms. Ricardel was spreading negative stories about her and her staff — to John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff. Complaints from Mrs. Trump and her aides made their way to the national security adviser, John R. Bolton, but the tension continued unaddressed until this week, when Mrs. Trump’s office all but called for Ms. Ricardel’s removal.
Mr. Trump was initially not happy to learn of the rogue statement issued by the first lady’s office, according to a senior administration official familiar with the president’s reaction. But he eventually came around. The president, that person said, is proud of his wife’s independent streak.
Vanity Fair’s sources said that Donald Trump approved of Melania’s message too, and one source said: “The president called Johnny DeStefano today and said, ‘Get the bitch out of here or you’re gone.’” Which sounds like him. Donald Trump wasn’t upset at all that Melania so publicly burned a member of his national security staff. The Trumps LOVE palace intrigue and they love it when they’re acting out some kind of soap opera plotline. Now, all that being said, if Ricardel’s offenses against Melania and her staff were really this bad, then yes, I actually do think she should have been fired. It just shouldn’t have happened this way at all – Melania’s chief of staff should have gone to John Kelly and they should have worked it out between themselves instead of all this public drama.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.
So what heinous decision is all this public drama distracting us from, this time?
Betsy Devos maybe? The slow moving train wreck of firings?
I was wondering the same thing when I first read the story.
Haven’t heard much from Ben Carson lately
I picture him napping in his very expensively redone office, day after day.
Ben Carson sits on his rear end and collects a paycheck. That is all.
@Laura I’m glad he sits on his behind. Otherwise they’d be wrecking HUD by gutting it. I’m in the region whose HUD administrator is the former Trump wedding planner. She’s a real gem. Every day I get angrier at people who think politics and policy isn’t work & I feel awful for the agency folk who are trying to keep things from going off the rails.
Or, no one in this administration is competent in any way shape or form, and it’s less “palace intrigue” and more “no one has any idea what to do”.
Occhams razor: when the choice is between Trump stupidity and drama, the default is stupidity.
I tend to think so. I think we forget, in the midst of so much evil, that the incompetence in this effed up administration is staggering.
And let’s not forget, handling things privately and internally is what ADULTS do…
Completely agree. It’s pure incompetence.
Also, I’m really tired of the “it’s just another distraction!” narrative because it implies:
1) That we are a bunch of simple idiots who can only focus on one thing at a time and
2) That Trump is somehow this master manipulator who can easily and effectively undermine our political focus.
Neither of which is true. We can all focus on a variety of important issues at once and Trump is a master at manipulating his base and the media ONLY. He’s terrible at influencing members of the Resistance because we see through his bullshit.
Or as I like to remember from Scrubs and the indelible Dr. Cox – “In other words, if you hear hoof-beats, you just go ahead and think horsies — not zebras. Mm’kay, Mr. Silly Bear?”
the NSC woman is a nightmare, to be sure. But she probably rightly inferred, when NSC staff wasn’t given the traditionally allotted seats on the plane, ‘ok, first lady Melania Antoinette clearly doesnt give a damn about NSC protocol or information or whatever and her main priority is how she looks (positive press coverage, thus more seats for journos), ok then, have it your way stupid lady!
Melania’s team (according to the WAPO) told the state dept staff and NSC staff to take their own plane and meet them on the ground. This is not that normal. Melania’s a stupid peacock and wanted to strut in front of the cameras and was flouting normal security protocol and Ricardel was just as immature and catty about the response.
Trump attracts unprofessional people period.
Melania Antoinette Ha!
This administration is petty as f**k. Our country is basically a dumpster fire and Melania wants this chick fired over some seating assignments on an airplane.
A hundred years from now, people will refuse to believe this administration was real.
Srsly, they make Disney/Marvel villains look LESS “cartoon-y” and LESS evil.
Only if you believe that in 100 years from now people will be better than they are now.
Oh, it’s not that I think we’ll be better. Just that what’s going on is so ludicrous as to be branded impossible even by fictional standards.
@isla Yes. It’s easy to think the past two years was a mistake that will never happen again. But damage has been done and it will play out over decades. We’ve seen a lot of peoples’ true (deplorable) character come out. Too many people. I think the next two years and 2020 will show us whether we can right the ship; things will either get better and democracy will succeed, or, not enough will be done to fix this and in 100 years our democracy won’t exist. I wish that was hyperbole.
She’s really stupid making enemies like this, she has a LOT of dirt in the past, keeping low-key is the only way to avoid attention, then again she probably has no shame or soul
Never believe anything the Trump admin says. Includes Melania. They’re always up to something.
Exactly, NY Times gets the ‘inside scoop’ from the White House always in a way that favors the Trump family. The real story is probably either something else or more complex.
I spy a clothes horse consumed by conspicuous fashion.
The goodwill toward Melania is beyond me. And this situation just shows what a power monger she is. That whole trip was a boondoggle vacation for her and cost taxpayers a lot of money. I expect more of same since she obviously likes to get away from The Donald.
If Ricardel really did withhold or fumble security information then that is bad bad bad.
So I wonder if Mira Ricardel is the one who leaked about Melania’s $95,000 hotel bill in Cairo for six hours, and the public cat fight is the result of that ugly bit of exposure that Melania for sure wanted to bury.
Just read a WaPo article that mentions the Egypt hotel costs “rumor” being blamed on her.
Ah, THAT would be the real reason! Makes sense. What was Malaria doing in Africa other than changing clothes and posing anyway? Seriously?!
I’d bet $1000 this is it – Ricardel leaked the hotel bill and Melania is pissed.
#BeBest
” The president, that person said, is proud of his wife’s independent streak.”
I never laughed so much in my entire life.
One bully down, every cabinet member and 45 to go. Melania for the win.
Conspiracy theory #451 this brown on brown slipping into her wardrobe – harkens back Hitler’s “brown shirts”, of the Sturmabteilung/Storm Detachment. Creep factor – maximum
Melania’s jeoulous of the attention Michelle Obama’s getting right now. She’s showing she’s more powerful than Michelle.