ELECTION/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Bottled-up hostility in President Donald Trump’s administration flowed to the surface Tuesday [11-13-18] during a remarkable 12-hour period following an awkward midterm détente and tense trip to Paris over which the president is still seething. At the White House, Trump appeared poised to dismiss Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a source of personal frustration for months over what Trump views as weak leadership on border security and other immigration enforcement policies he’s sought to implement. The fresh round of backbiting and post-midterm turnover could also sweep out Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly, a close Nielsen ally, and see him replaced with Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, who is re-emerging as a leading candidate, according to several White House officials and others close to the presidential orbit….White House aides and advisers have long anticipated an internal staff reckoning once the uneasy truce broke and the dust settled after the elections. But some conceded that the drumbeat of exits, the threat of subpoenas from the Russia probe and anticipated investigations by a newly empowered Democratic House — along with a raft of negative media attention in recent days — were taking a heavy toll on not only the president, but also on the aides and advisers’ thinning ranks.”
-Nancy Cook, “Staff anger spills over at White House,” Politico, November 13, 2018 7:32 pm