The conversation among some of the presidents longtime confidantes, along with the character of some of the leaks emerging from the White House has shifted. Theres a new level of concern. NBC News published a report that Trump shocked his national security team when he called for a nearly tenfold increase in the countrys nuclear arsenal during a briefing this summer. One Trump adviser confirmed to me it was after this meeting disbanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a moron.
In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trumps ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche, a person close to Trump said. He saw the cult of personality was broken.
According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them! (A White House official denies this.) Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about Kellys future increased after Politico reported that Kellys deputy Kirstjen Nielsen is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretarythe theory among some Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his departure.
