It was happy families in the Trump administration last week when #Ivanka Trump's children, Arabella and Jospeh, were formally – or perhaps not so formally – presented to the #Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Madame Peng Liyuan at Mar-A-Lago. President Trump was meeting the Chinese powerbroker for the first time and they had a pleasing conversation, and many predict this could be the start of a warm friendship if not on trade then in person.
The children meet the Chinese President
On Twitter the next day, Trump posted footage of his grandchildren meeting the Chinese royalty, and also talked about the successful meeting.
The President wrote that goodwill and friendship was formed, but that it would take time to see if the countries agreed on a satisfactory trade agreement. It was seen as one of the high points of #presidency so far, with its 37 percent ratings and rumors of in-fighting within the Oval Office.
And so, back in Washington DC it certainly wasn't happy families between Donald Trump's team of aides and advisors. Word in the Oval Office is that #Stephen Bannon and #Jared Kushner are constantly competing against each other, with leaked stories and revealing off-source quotes to the press that condemn each other or reveal information about the other.
Their antipathy has been such an issue that on Thursday as Trump sought clarity on his Syrian strike issue, a highly stressful decision which was ordered just an hour after the Chinese meeting, the President addressed the fractiousness between the two parties.
Speaking to his two top aids, #Stephen Bannon and #Reince Priebus, who comprise one side of the conflict, the President told them he was sick of their fighting and their backstabbing against #Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, as well as economic adviser Gary Cohn. Trump was particularly miffed since a lot of this infighting reaches the media.
As reported in the New York Times, Trump told them to work it out, as two White House employees revealed.
Democrats in Republicans territory
Kushner and Gary Cohn, a Wall Street executive as well as a Democrat, have a far different set of beliefs and ideologies from Bannon, who is more right wing and sees himself as the keeper of the #Trump campaign promises and statements.
The President is aware of the rift and that it will take hard work and a certain loss of ego to repair the increasing fracture. He is even considering shaking up his staff position and rearranging his inner team, this according the four sources who spoke to the New York Times.
In the last few weeks the President has been deciding his course of action with a staff rearrangement in the Oval Office. Indeed he is used to working amidst competing teams of people who all vie for his good graces and his attention, as was evidenced on his television show #The Apprentice that he starred in for many years. Donald Trump thrives in chaos and works in a swift and impromptu manner, changing his mind and taking an almost erratic approach to issues.
This sort of management style can confuse and overwhelm his staff, who are all then left to scramble trying to re-orientate themselves in order to thrive.
The past week has seen high level decisions and a departure from the security council for Stephen Bannon. There were many other events that made the last week a memorable one: Trump's pick for the #Supreme Court was confirmed, he hosted multiple foreign leaders and also made a decisive military action against Syria as well. His aides have said that it was one of the #best weeks of his presidency, and yet he is tired of reading about his staff bickering with each other and so he fired out a warning shot that things would change under his hand if the staff themselves didn't make those changes themselves.
