US President Donald Trump dislikes being photographed with his daughter Tiffany because he thinks she’s overweight, his former personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, told reporters at a dinner near the president’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, according to sources who spoke to Politico on Friday.
Westerhout “had a couple drinks” and “opened up to reporters” in an “uncharacteristically unguarded moment,” one of the sources said, adding that the president’s rumored gatekeeper joked that Trump couldn’t pick Tiffany, his youngest daughter, out of a crowd and boasted that she has a better relationship with his daughters than he does.
But of the four reporters present, only one – the Washington Post’s Phil Rucker – opted to print the comments, made during what was supposed to be an off-the-record dinner. White House staffers often dine and drink with reporters off the record while the president is traveling, and some in the administration are more upset with Rucker for breaking confidentiality than they are with Westerhout for gossiping in the first place.
Here’s what Trump’s assistant dished about Ivanka and Tiffany Trump that caused her firing https://t.co/QSbOTdNSnw
— Raw Story (@RawStory) August 30, 2019
“This was an off-the-record dinner and the media blatantly violated that agreement,” an administration official told Politico. Arthur Schwartz, a political consultant who has made it his personal mission to go after journalists critical of the president, accused Rucker of having “burned” Westerhout, who resigned abruptly on Thursday after the White House learned of her indiscretions. Reporters from Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg were also present at the dinner.
Trump confirmed Westerhout resigned after talking to reporters about his children, calling the comments “a little bit hurtful” but mourning the loss of “a very good person” from his retinue. “It was too bad,” he told reporters, adding that he “wished her well.” The president reportedly had to be persuaded that Westerhout’s resignation was necessary, having grown fond of her.
But he denied speaking ill of his daughter, promising to call Tiffany when he reached Camp David, where he was headed on Friday. “I love Tiffany,” he insisted.
Westerhout controlled access to the president, screening calls and mediating outside advisers’ access, and some in the administration found her loyalties suspect. A former intern on Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign who came to the Trump administration from the Republican National Committee, she allegedly cried on election night, “inconsolable” that Trump had won, according to Politico reporter Tim Alberta, and kept to herself on the job, blanketing her Instagram with photos of White House life.
Read more: How Ivanka Trump prompted furor with her twitter photo?
“She was a spy from day one who sought to use her proximity to the president to curry favor with his detractors,” a former official told CBS. “Trump loyalists” cheered her departure, according to the New York Times, though both current and former officials are reportedly worried that she may leak further details of her time by Trump’s side, noting she was not believed to have signed a non-disclosure agreement.
RT with additional input by GVS News Desk