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Trump’s inner circle in turmoil: Rift with Giuliani, Hicks out and Kushner struggling

With West Wing emptying, Trump lashes out at few staffers and loyalists left

Gustaf Kilander
Washington, DC
Thursday 14 January 2021 16:24 GMT
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Trump releases video condemning Capitol riot violence after being impeached again

President Trump's inner circle is in disarray as he fights with his closest aides and advisors on his way out the door. 

According to reports, the president has instructed aides not to pay Rudy Giuliani his $20,000-a-day fee for his attempts to overturn the election and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also said to be struggling to keep the President under control. 

Meanwhile, the President has lost a close aide in Hope Hicks who has now left the White House in a planned departure. 

Mr Giuliani began representing Mr Trump for free in the middle of the Mueller investigation in April 2018, The New York Times reported.

As the impeachment process picked up following the deadly riot at the Capitol, Mr Trump was upset that no one was defending him. 

“The president is pretty wound up,”  a senior administration official told the Washington Post, “No one is out there.”

The president’s senior adviser Jason Miller played down the rift on Twitter but didn’t get into the issue about Giuliani’s payment. 

"Just spoke with President Trump, and he told me that @RudyGiuliani is a great guy and a Patriot who devoted his services to the country! We all love America's Mayor!" he wrote.

Meanwhile, the President is also said to have clashed with his son-in-law and other senior advisor Jared Kushner.

He has reportedly been forced to stop the president from joining fringe social media platforms after being banned from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, among others. 

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And one of Mr Trump's longtime advisers and loyalists, Hope Hicks, had her last day at the White House on Tuesday, CNN reported. It was a previously planned departure, but Ms Hicks had not spent much time at the White House leading up to it after she felt she was losing her influence as she was pushing back on Mr Trump's baseless claims of a fraudulent election.

Numerous members of the administration have resigned since the riot, leaving Mr Trump largely with loyalists and yesmen. 

Some of the more high-profile resignations include acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Education Secretary Betsy Devos, and Special Envoy to Northern Ireland and former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. 

Some of those who have left the White House include Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, the acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Tyler Goodspeed, the First Lady’s Chief of Staff and former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, and Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, according to a tally by The New York Times.

Some of the only people that Mr Trump talks to now, are his adult sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr, Business Insider reported.

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