Plan B Forum

Guinevere wrote:Kelly has resigned. Announcement being held for Friday afternoon news dump.

The White House summoned the media to a last-minute photo op on Thursday evening, during which President Donald Trump made a series of cryptic comments while surrounded by “the world’s great military people.”

The short photo spray lasted about a minute.“You guys know what this represents?” Trump asked reporters. “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”

“What’s the storm?” a reporter asked. “On Iran? On ISIS? On what?”

“We have the world’s great military people,” Trump replied. “Thank you all for coming.”

When pressed once more by NBC News’ Kristen Welker on what the “storm” was, the president responded: “You’ll find out.”

Reporters at the gathering expressed confusion around the event ― which was called after the day’s press “lid” was placed for the evening. A lid is called when the president has no more scheduled public appearances and is effectively done for the day. It was reinstated after photos were taken.

Before the photo spray was called, Trump was hosting a dinner with military officials and their spouses in the Blue Room of the White House. Those in attendance included Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Donald Trump boots John Kelly off Air Force One, amid talk of his impending resignation

From the start, it’s been clear that the marriage between Donald Trump and his latest White House Chief of Staff John Kelly would be a rocky one. Kelly has fired many of Trump’s favorite staffers for being loose cannons. Trump’s public behavior has repeatedly embarrassed Kelly, to the point that he’s been seen hanging his head or hiding his face while Trump is speaking. Now things have gotten much, much worse between the two of them.

John Kelly was set to fly with Donald Trump on Air Force One to Las Vegas today, but Kelly was booted off the flight at the last minute, according to Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News (link). She didn’t explicitly state this, but protocol says that Trump is the only one who could have made a decision like that, so we know that Trump booted Kelly from the flight. The White House is refusing to publicly address the incident, but others are talking.

Here’s what political insider Scott Dworkin had to say about the matter: “I’ve heard from three people from different circles on the Hill that this may be John Kelly’s last week as Trump’s Chief of Staff” (link). So what’s really going on here that led to Trump booting Kelly off Air Force One at the last minute? Did Kelly voice his displeasure about Trump’s antics in Puerto Rico the day before? Did they have a disagreement about what Trump should or shouldn’t say in Las Vegas? Did Kelly tell Trump that he’s considering resigning, prompting Trump to punish him? There’s also another angle here.

Earlier today, NBC News reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called Donald Trump a “moron” behind his back but within earshot of other officials, back in June. It’s clear someone was looking to cause trouble by belatedly leaking this information today. It’s possible Trump, who has long been paranoid about leaks, suspects Kelly was involved in the leak.

It will put Drumpf's administration in total meltdown mode.

“You guys know what this represents?” Trump asked reporters. “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”

Tillerson’s Job on Death Watch as Moron-Gate Explodes

Trump is reportedly fuming—and John Kelly is racing to contain the fallout.

by
Abigail Tracy
October 6, 2017 10:28 am

Rex Tillerson’s already-shaky position within Donald Trump’s Cabinet is suddenly looking precarious. Simmering tensions between the president and his top diplomat spilled out into the open again on Wednesday amid reports that the reluctant secretary of state had threatened to resign and called his boss a “moron” over the summer. Tillerson’s subsequent non-denial denial reportedly left Trump fuming and Chief of Staff John Kelly scrambling to contain the fallout, spurring a fresh wave of speculation that the long-rumored “Rexit” may be imminent.

Trump was livid when the “moron” story broke, according to NBC News, which first reported that Tillerson had vented about the president earlier this summer. With Trump on the warpath, Kelly reportedly canceled his plans to travel to Las Vegas with the president to clean up the mess, summoning Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis to outline a response to the deluge of negative press coverage. By 11 a.m. on Thursday, Tillerson was behind a lectern in damage-control mode, declaring that he “had never considered leaving” his post and praising the president.[Man, did that humiliating performance look like a hostage video...]

Still, Tillerson stopped short of outright denying that he had called the president a “moron,” ushering in a fresh news cycle.

When Trump insisted that NBC News had made up the story, and that nobody sought “verification” from him, the network hit back. “Sir, we didn’t need to verify that he called you a moron, he did it behind your back,” MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle said on air, delivering another round of bad press and further enraging the president. On Friday morning, Axios cited insiders as saying the relationship is “broken beyond repair,” with Trump furious that Tillerson didn’t shut down the story.

Kelly is reportedly trying to stanch the bleeding, figuring that another major staff shake-up will only further destabilize the administration. But the relationship between the White House and Foggy Bottom is so toxic, sources told Jonathan Swan, that there may be no coming back.