White House staff paralyzed by fear

Not even during the darkest days of the Watergate scandal has the political and career government staff of the Executive Office of the President been gripped by the fear that has resulted in normal business grinding to almost a dead stop. The internecine warfare that has broken out between competing factions of the White House staff has resulted in the odd scene of many young political staffers bolting the White House grounds to alleyways, aisles well inside stores like CVS, and back tables of Starbuck’s and other coffee shops to commiserate over cell phone calls with colleagues, friends, and family members about their own longevity in their jobs.

The long knives are out inside the Trump White House with the Jared Kushner forces aligned with the president and White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci against the faction of GOP insiders led by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and another led by alt-right hero Steve Bannon. Some White House observers have commented that the intense rivalries between factions is reminiscent of gang warfare, but without the violence.

The conventional wisdom around Pennsylvania Avenue is that Priebus will likely be ousted, along with a Trump/Scaramucci purge of the Department of Justice. On July 27, Scaramucci threatened Preibus with an FBI investigation for “leaking” information to the press. Scaramucci later deleted his tweet.

The intent of the firing of Sessions is to use a Senate recess in August to conduct a recess appointment of a new attorney general . A recess appointment of a new attorney general and deputy does not require Senate confirmation until the next session of the Senate, which will start in January 2019. A recess appointment attorney general would move to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, stop the investigation of Trump and his key associates and family members, and place under seal the evidence collected to date by Mueller and his prosecutors.

Meanwhile, as the barbs fly between rival factions in the White House, nervous staffers, worried about being overheard inside the Executive Mansion and Old Executive Office Building, are engaged in frantic phone calls while standing at the end of CVS’s deodorant shelving.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2017 WayneMadenReport.com

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).

4 Responses to White House staff paralyzed by fear

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  3. Trump is probably the most Game-infested president in US history. i am talking about psychological Games, not games like football and basketball where the game object is obvious and there are rules and referees. Psychological Game-players beat up on others, demean others, devalue others while pretending to be justified Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims, with no referees to call fouls, and no way to keep score. Football games are honest and overt; psychological Games are dishonest and covert. Trump’s most common Game is “Let’s you and them fight,” used as a divide and conquer strategy designed to increase his power by causing others to fight. He is a master at setting people against others at all levels, conservatives vs. liberals, natives vs. immigrants, evangelicals vs. transgenders, and, now, various cliques in the White House. Most of his Tweets are like someone pouring gasoline on a fire, inflaming millions of agitated people in less than forty-five characters. Getting out of bed a few days ago and Tweeting he was banning transgenders in the military is one of his most successful Let’s You and Them Fight Games started lately, sure to create serious consternation, anxiety, and agitation among targeted groups.

  4. “A recess appointment of a new attorney general and deputy does not require Senate confirmation until the next session of the Senate, which will start in January 2019. A recess appointment attorney general would move to fire special counsel Robert Mueller”
    Well, that’s not going to happen: Mueller has appointed a grand jury, and any effort to fire him will trigger an identical reaction to Archibald Cox of Watergate days: an immediate move to impeach Trump.