Anne Fearan, Josh Dawsey, and Emily Heil of The Washington
Post provide the boring, albeit necessary, background:
Policy experts from the NSC and State Department were
advised to fly separately and to meet the first lady’s party on the ground, a
practice the State Department had often used, but Ricardel objected
strenuously, those people said. She threatened to revoke NSC resources
associated with the trip, meaning no policy staff would advise the first lady
during her visits to Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Egypt.
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A transoceanic personnel crisis that engulfed the National
Security Council this week is partly rooted in a bureaucratic dispute over the
seating arrangements aboard first lady Melania Trump’s plane to Africa last
month during her maiden solo trip abroad.
As the East Wing prepared the flight manifest for the
marquee trip, deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel became angry that
seats on the first lady’s government jet were assigned to a larger-than-usual
security entourage and a small press corps with none for Ricardel or another
NSC staffer, according to current U.S. officials and others familiar with the
trip and its aftermath.
Bad blood between Ricardel and Melania Trump and her staff
continued for weeks after the trip, with the first lady privately arguing that
the NSC’s No. 2 official was a corrosive influence in the White House and
should be dismissed. But national security adviser John Bolton rebuffed the
first lady and protected his deputy, prompting the first lady’s spokeswoman,
Stephanie Grisham, to issue an extraordinary statement to reporters Tuesday
effectively calling for Ricardel’s firing.
This may be a personality dispute or someone overstepping
her bounds, fairly routine vices.
Somehow, however, "the first lady's spokeswoman" became
“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.
After an uncomfortable day of limbo, White House press
secretary Sarah Sanders announced Wednesday evening that Ricardel was leaving
the White House.
The "Office of the First Lady?" The reporters continue
Soon after the first lady’s office issued its statement
Tuesday, surprised senior White House aides walked to Ricardel’s office to see
whether she was still there. She was, albeit confused....
A senior White House official said the first lady believed
Ricardel was spreading false rumors about her office, including a misleading
story that aides had arranged a $10,000 hotel stay in Egypt. Other White House
aides said Ricardel belittled underlings, shouted at professional staff and was
the most disliked aide in the West Wing.
Last weekend, according to administration officials, the
first lady’s office again asked Bolton to oust Ricardel. Others, including
Kelly, have wanted her gone for months, administration officials said, with
little success in overcoming Bolton’s objections.
There is no Office of the First Lady. This website explains
From 1975 until the present day -- that is, from Betty Ford
to Laura Bush -- women in the White House rekindled their interest in policy
with a zeal unseen since Eleanor Roosevelt. In particular, Hillary Clinton
advanced the policy-making aspect of first ladyship with her appointment to the
task force committee for health care reform.
The "Office of the First Lady" is not mentioned in
the US Constitution, nor does it seem to have been foreseen by the Founders. It
has not been enacted legislatively, nor has it been the subject of any
Executive Order.
There is no mention of anything authorizing an "Office
of the First Lady," probably because there is nothing authorizing such an
office.
Some constitutional scholars- but especially politicians-
once boasted of being "strict constructionists" and many
conservatives similarly exhibited horror at "waste, fraud, and
abuse." There once also were (alleged) opponents of "big government."
Yet, no one on the right, nor any one on the anti-President
Trump left, has uttered a word about this office
It is, then, relatively courageous that the Post reporters- probably
going as far as their editor would approve- point out
Martha Washington, historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony noted,
once wrote that she felt like a “state prisoner” because of protocol rules and
a schedule set in part by her husband’s chief adviser, Tobias Lear. And there
was no love lost between Mary Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln’s chief counselors,
John Hay and John Nicolay, who referred to her as “the hellcat” behind her
back.
Pat Nixon, Anthony says, chafed at top White House aides
H.R. “Bob” Haldeman and John Erlichman for perceived offenses that included not
giving her enough notice before travel and for not taking her ambitious agenda
seriously, Anthony said.
“It goes back so far that what we’re really talking about is
human nature and the problem of the boss’s wife,” he said.
Melania Trump has taken on a more public role recently,
launching her anti-bullying campaign earlier this year and traveling to Africa in
October.
Notably, there is no mention of anything creating an
"Office" with a capital "O." In this instance, assertive behavior of
the First Lady is a wise strategic maneuver,
given that the GOP was recently shellacked by female voters and is generally
seen as fairly hostile to women's issues.
The spouse of the President of the United States of America
always will have a role. She (or he) can influence the President through "pillow talk" or in any manner they wish..
However, the First Lady is neither elected nor appointed and the designation of
staff as comprising an "office" comes out of thin air, wasteful and
extra-constitutional.
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