President Trump threatened to withdraw his nomination of Kirstjen Nielsen to be homeland security secretary just one week after she was chosen, according to a new report.
Nielsen was nominated in October 2017 to replace acting Secretary Elaine Duke, who took over DHS after John Kelly was moved to the White House to be Trump’s chief of staff.
But a week after Nielsen was picked, Trump talked of rescinding the nomination during an Oval Office meeting that sources described to Axios. The report said Trump had been watching Fox News personalities pan Nielsen as soft on border security.
The tense moment irritated Kelly, who reportedly walked out of the room saying, “Maybe I should just quit then.” Kelly has repeatedly talked of quitting after heated exchanges at different times, according to multiple reports this weekend.
Nielsen later was confirmed as DHS secretary, but Axios reports that while she supports Trump’s hardline stance on immigration and building a border wall with Mexico, she also has the difficult task of talking Trump out of more extreme ideas he hears on TV.
