President Trump and some of his top aides exploded in anger over portrayals this week that key immigration and Middle East peace plans are in disarray.
Trump tweeted his anger today at the New York Times and the Washington Post which have suggested that rivals in the administration are fighting over Iran policy.
“The Fake News Washington Post, and even more Fake News New York Times, are writing stories that there is infighting with respect to my strong policy in the Middle East. There is no infighting whatsoever,” Trump said in one of two tweets.
….Different opinions are expressed and I make a decisive and final decision – it is a very simple process. All sides, views, and policies are covered. I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 15, 2019
In his second, he continued, “….Different opinions are expressed and I make a decisive and final decision – it is a very simple process. All sides, views, and policies are covered. I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon.”
Such fighting is typical on major policy debates. In Trump’s White House, such infighting is often portrayed as chaos.
In other past administrations, like those of former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, the media has praised so-called “team of rivals” and said the infighting creates better policy. But in Trump’s, and especially when top aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner is involved, as he is on immigration and Middle East policy development, internal disagreements are seen as disarray.
This is nonsense. Jared had the whole team present together to show the republican senators the WH is unified on the proposal. This has been a full team effort. https://t.co/BOLQckDEjh
— Avi Berkowitz (@AviBerkow) May 14, 2019
Kushner has been rapped over his efforts to produce a reform plan for legal immigration in parallel with fellow top aide Stephen Miller’s focus on illegal immigration. Trump plans to announce a new immigration policy on Thursday.
For example, Kushner on Tuesday accompanied Miller to Capitol Hill to brief GOP senators on his efforts and the Post called it a mess.
It said that Miller had to bail Kushner out when he couldn’t answer questions and that Miller interrupted Kushner.
An aide, Avi Berkowitz, blasted the coverage as “nonsense” in a tweet. He wrote, “This is nonsense. Jared had the whole team present together to show the Republican senators the WH is unified on the proposal. This has been a full team effort.”
Insiders said that Miller did not “interrupt” Kushner and that Kushner invited Miller to join him to provided fuller context to the immigration plan. They have described the two as willing partners on fixing immigration policy.
They also criticized negative comments from anonymous sources and instead pointed to the on-the-record comment praising Kushner from Trump critic Sen. Mitt Romney who said, “I thought it was a very effective presentation … it would have passed with flying colors among Republicans. But we need to get some Democrats, too.”
