Trump questioning having family as staff: report

President Trump is privately questioning whether having his family members serve in the White House creates too much of a distraction for his administration, according to a new report.

Politico reported on Friday that Trump has been quietly talking to other administration officials as he reconsiders the roles of White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

{mosads}“Baby, you’re getting killed, this is a bad deal,” Trump reportedly told Ivanka Trump in a room with other staffers after viewing criticism of his daughter’s role in the administration.

Ivanka Trump faced heavy criticism during last July’s G20 summit when she briefly sat in for her father at a meeting with world leaders. Trump defended his daughter on Twitter at the time, arguing that the same standard would not exist for Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton.

“When I left Conference Room for short meetings with Japan and other countries, I asked Ivanka to hold seat. Very standard. Angela M agrees!” Trump tweeted in July. “If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!”

Kushner, however, is embroiled in a different controversy. The senior White House aide is part of a special counsel investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia over a meeting he attended at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

Although Politico reported that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has been frustrated with Kushner’s role at the White House, Kelly responded to the story in a statement to Politico, saying, “Jared is a valued member of the White House staff.”

White House lawyers advised Trump to have Kushner step down earlier in the summer over the probe, fearing possible legal complications. The legal team even went as far as to draft a statement explaining his departure, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The statement, which would have been issued by Kushner, blamed a toxic political environment for turning Kushner’s meeting with the lawyer into an attack on Trump.

Tags Hillary Clinton John Kelly

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