What was Madeleine Westerhout doing at the White House at all?

In retrospect, one wonders why Madeleine Westerhout, the White House aide to President Trump who resigned after drunken indiscreet comments to reporters, was there in her job as “Director of Oval Office Operations” at all. 

According to Politico:

Madeleine Westerhout, who left her White House job suddenly on Thursday as President Trump’s personal assistant, was fired after bragging to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, and that the president did not like being in pictures with Tiffany because he perceived her as overweight.

Given Westerhout’s sensitive role as a confidante to the president, the few details the White House shared about her abrupt firing had Washington’s political-media class in a quiet frenzy on Thursday night and Friday.

This was just one incident, and sure enough the press acted as Aesop’s scorpion, unable to help itself to hold off on the stinging even to save itself (or their source), so she was quite the fool to think they’d behave otherwise. It sounds as though she might just have gotten away with it a lot up until now – leaks and mean talk – as both Politico and the New York Times lightly suggest she did.

Five things stand out here about her: She was affiliated with Mitt Romney, who hates President Trump and does everything he can to oppose him from the Republican side. So the NeverTrumpism from her origins ran thick. Two, she was affiliated with Reince Priebus and Katie Walsh, two White House aides who left early because they had leak and loyalty problems with President Trump, too. Three, she cried on election night, which, if true, would be the most damning thing. If she cried, it means she voted for the other side – and given the choice, how could she pick Hillary Clinton even if she didn’t care for Trump much? This goes beyond bad judgment. Two other things: the 28-year-old aide was billed as “immature” by other White House aides who wanted her about, which would certainly explain her impulsiveness and susceptibility to the effects of drinking with journalists, which effectively did her in. Four, she was said to be ambitious for power, which would have natural vectors in sucking up to the press as she tried to do, much to her eternal grief, as well as in her willingness to use President Trump (a guy she hated) to climb to the top.

A sad story. Was she hired because she was young and good looking? If so, what a weakness of President Trump’s.

Someone in Trump’s position requires loyalty, something that cannot be bought, educated, or plastic-surgeried in. And for an employee who basically served as a glorified secretary, it was really the only thing such a person could potentially offer of value. Westerhout, in retrospect, seems to have sent up some red flags and President Trump — and we the people who elected him — deserved better.

 

In retrospect, one wonders why Madeleine Westerhout, the White House aide to President Trump who resigned after drunken indiscreet comments to reporters, was there in her job as “Director of Oval Office Operations” at all. 

According to Politico:

Madeleine Westerhout, who left her White House job suddenly on Thursday as President Trump’s personal assistant, was fired after bragging to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his own daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, and that the president did not like being in pictures with Tiffany because he perceived her as overweight.

Given Westerhout’s sensitive role as a confidante to the president, the few details the White House shared about her abrupt firing had Washington’s political-media class in a quiet frenzy on Thursday night and Friday.

This was just one incident, and sure enough the press acted as Aesop’s scorpion, unable to help itself to hold off on the stinging even to save itself (or their source), so she was quite the fool to think they’d behave otherwise. It sounds as though she might just have gotten away with it a lot up until now – leaks and mean talk – as both Politico and the New York Times lightly suggest she did.

Five things stand out here about her: She was affiliated with Mitt Romney, who hates President Trump and does everything he can to oppose him from the Republican side. So the NeverTrumpism from her origins ran thick. Two, she was affiliated with Reince Priebus and Katie Walsh, two White House aides who left early because they had leak and loyalty problems with President Trump, too. Three, she cried on election night, which, if true, would be the most damning thing. If she cried, it means she voted for the other side – and given the choice, how could she pick Hillary Clinton even if she didn’t care for Trump much? This goes beyond bad judgment. Two other things: the 28-year-old aide was billed as “immature” by other White House aides who wanted her about, which would certainly explain her impulsiveness and susceptibility to the effects of drinking with journalists, which effectively did her in. Four, she was said to be ambitious for power, which would have natural vectors in sucking up to the press as she tried to do, much to her eternal grief, as well as in her willingness to use President Trump (a guy she hated) to climb to the top.

A sad story. Was she hired because she was young and good looking? If so, what a weakness of President Trump’s.

Someone in Trump’s position requires loyalty, something that cannot be bought, educated, or plastic-surgeried in. And for an employee who basically served as a glorified secretary, it was really the only thing such a person could potentially offer of value. Westerhout, in retrospect, seems to have sent up some red flags and President Trump — and we the people who elected him — deserved better.