Pompeo, Mattis Irked By Bolton Cutting Back On Cabinet Meetings

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 17: (AFP OUT) John Bolton, national security advisor, from right, Jim Mattis, U.S. secretary of defense, and Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, listen during a meeting with U.S. President Dona... WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 17: (AFP OUT) John Bolton, national security advisor, from right, Jim Mattis, U.S. secretary of defense, and Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, listen during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), not pictured, in the Cabinet Room of the White House May 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. The White House said the two leaders will be discussing the upcoming NATO Summit in July. (Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis are growing increasingly frustrated with National Security Adviser John Bolton’s efforts to cut back on meetings between Cabinet chiefs, Politico reported.

Mattis reportedly wrote Bolton a letter requesting more meetings with administration leadership to “smooth the bubble” of disjointed messaging on key foreign policy issues, like toward Russia and the U.S. stance in Syria, one senior official told Politico.

The scarcity of “principals committee” meetings — gatherings of Cabinet heads to prepare policy for President Trump — has several senior officials concerned about whether the White House is exuding a cohesive message on key issues. The frustrations have heightened following Trump’s disastrous press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bolton did not hold a “principals” meeting before the summit and hasn’t held one since, according to Politico.

Read the full report here. 

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Notable Replies

  1. has several senior officials concerned about whether the White House is exuding a cohesive message on key issues.

    See, that’s like stealth funny. You can’t see it, then wham! Very nice.

  2. Maybe they will eventually get tired of getting irked off…

  3. Avatar for tsp tsp says:

    The President’s National Security Adviser apparently thinks Cabinet meetings are a threat to national security. Or more likely, they are a threat to the President’s personal ego and vaulted opinion of himself.

  4. You wonder if they’ve ever read even one of the hundreds of articles on what we’ll laughingly call Trump’s management style. Chaos is on brand.

    P.S. Could we not do that thing where you do a quote changing “management” to “mismanagement” and adding FIFY? Man, that gets old.

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