President Trump’s personal assistant was reportedly fired after she made critical comments about his daughters to reporters.
Madeleine Westerhout told journalists at an off-the-record dinner that she had a better relationship with the president than his daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, and that the president did not like being photographed with Tiffany because she was seen as being overweight, Politico reported Friday.
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Westerhout, 28, also joked that Trump could not pick Tiffany out of a crowd.
The New York Times reported a day earlier that Westerhout, who had been by Trump’s side since his first day in office, abruptly left her position after the president found out she had divulged information about the Trump family to a small group of reporters who were covering Trump’s vacation in Bedminister, New Jersey, earlier this month.
Deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley was also at the dinner, but left about an hour in for an interview on Fox News. Westerhout reportedly made the comments after he left.
Trump told reporters before leaving for Camp David for the weekend that he spoke with Westerhout, who told him she had been drinking when she commented on his daughters.
“She called, and I wished her well,” Trump said.
The Washington Post’s Phil Rucker, Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, Reuters’ Steve Holland and Andrew Restuccia of the Wall Street Journal attended the dinner.
“This was an off-the-record dinner and the media blatantly violated that agreement,” an administration official said.
Arthur Schwartz, who is close with Donald Trump Jr., accused Rucker of leaking details from the dinner in a series of tweets Friday.
Source told me off the record that @PhilipRucker doesn’t know how to #BeBest.
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) August 30, 2019
This text was not from Rucker. It was from a reporter at another outlet reaching out about something completely unrelated to politics. Rucker did some serious damage to his profession — none of these people can be trusted. I’m sure they’ll find a way to blame POTUS for this.
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) August 30, 2019
Steven Ginsberg, an editor for the Washington Post, pushed back on his assertion, saying Rucker “has always acted with the utmost honor and integrity and has never violated Washington Post standards or policies.”
