Whatever Jarvanka wants, Jarvanka gets. That was proven conclusively when Steve Bannon clashed with the duo, Jared in particular, whom he called a “cuck” and a “globalist” and was duly banished from Trumpworld. His screaming at Ivanka, “You think you’re running the place. You’re nothing but a goddamn staffer,” didn’t endear him either. Once Bannon was disposed of, John Kelly loomed in Jarvanka’s sights, a feud that started as soon as Kelly arrived. They’ve been looking for a way to topple Kelly and this week’s op-ed crisis might be just the thing. Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair:
Earlier this week, they told Trump they were deeply troubled by the accounts in Woodward’s book and blamed Chief of Staff John Kelly for many of the leaks, an outside adviser close to them told me. “‘He’s destroying your presidency,’” Ivanka told her father, the outside adviser, who was briefed on the conversation, said. Their hunt for the author of the Times op-ed may bring them into the final chapter of their long-running feud with Kelly.
According to three sources, Jared and Ivanka floated a theory on Wednesday that Kelly could be behind the Times op-ed. Under this scenario, the sources said, the op-ed was written by Zachary Fuentes, the deputy chief of staff, at the direction of Kelly. Jared and Ivanka have told people they suspect this because Kelly is the only one with an ego so large as to have convinced himself that he’s saving the country from Trump, which was one of the op-ed’s principal arguments. On Wednesday night, Ivanka and Jared laid out for Trump the theory that Fuentes might be the author, an outside adviser with knowledge of the conversation told me. (A White House spokesperson said this is “untrue.”)
Trump disagreed with their theory, an outside adviser said. He told one ally that the op-ed was possibly written by someone who wants to derail Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing by weakening the president this week, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Ivanka has been frustrated that her father won’t take action against Kelly, an outside adviser said. She’s told people that Trump still sees Kelly as a “John Wayne figure,” and that Trump is worried that if Kelly is fired, he’ll become even more dangerous as an outside critic.
The mole hunt continues, with a list of suspects that’s growing longer. Trump is reportedly “rip-shit” and probably goes to sleep thinking of nothing else but who the traitor is and wakes up at 3:00 a.m. wondering about the same. He purportedly asked Kelly to stay on through 2020 and Kelly agreed, but who knows, Jarvanka might be able to oust Kelly at last now that the most intriguing chapter of palace intrigue in this regime so far has now been written.
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They’re taking on a marine general. They don’t scare easily.