"It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House," Grisham said of Ricardel in the statement. (From a story at the Washington Post, read it here.)
CNN provides some "inside baseball," so-to-speak, about the dynamics between Donald and his wife:
In the last week, the President's frayed and fraught relationships have been laid bare for all to see: He's furious at [chief of staff John] Kelly for a Paris trip that ended in a public relations debacle. He's blaming his political advisers for losing the winning narrative of the midterms. And he was caught off guard by his wife's shot across the bow at one of the top advisers in the West Wing--a sign that their private conversations clearly aren't functional.
After his wife ordered the astounding statement to be released Tuesday afternoon, Trump was furious that what had been an internal staffing matter was now thrust into public view, leaving him to look like a bossed-around husband. The President's mood was dark and intense after what officials said was a blindsiding by aides who do not report to him.
That generated a reminder from CNN reporter Kate Bennett, who covers the first lady full time:
Have said it before and I’ll say it again: there are no Melania Trump coincidences.— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) November 14, 2018
And from the same story, more details about the "Trump didn't go to the cemetery" debacle:
The decision to scrap a planned visit to an American cemetery in France because of rain over the weekend only deepened the President's conviction that he's being misserved by some of his staffers.
Trump was advised by deputy chief of staff Zach Fuentes, a close aide of Kelly's, just ahead of his tense meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron that he would not be able to fly his helicopter to the Aisne-Marne cemetery, situated 50 miles from Paris. A drive, Fuentes said, would cause traffic havoc around Paris, and would also make Trump late to the event--something he detests.
Some aides told the President that he should not worry about missing the event because he had other opportunities to pay respects on the trip, including another cemetery visit scheduled for the following day, according to people familiar with the conversations. Neither they nor the President expected the massive backlash the decision prompted, which sank in over the course of the following hours. As he watched the onslaught of headlines criticizing him for skipping the trip with no backup plan, the President took his anger out on Fuentes personally.
Whiling away the empty hours at the US ambassador's residence in Paris, Trump complained the entire trip to France was poorly conceived and executed, according to people familiar with the matter. He'd long discovered the events on Sunday would not include a grand military parade like the one he witnessed a year ago on Bastille day, leading him to wonder what the point of the trip was.
Finally, there's this:
Friends of the President describe him as embittered by the election losses and troubled by the Mueller investigation. He met Monday with his lawyers to go over a series of written questions from the special counsel. Some of his longtime confidants are worried for his health, believing he's gained weight and looks unwell.
Read the article here.
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