McGahn And Trump Rift Formed Over McGahn’s Failure To Quash Russia Probe

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) poses for photographs with Judge Brett Kavanaugh before a meeting at the U.S. Capitol July 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to succeed retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 11: White House Counsel Don McGahn heads to a meeting between Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) and Judge Brett Kavanaugh (C) at the U.S. Capitol July 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. Pre... WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 11: White House Counsel Don McGahn heads to a meeting between Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) and Judge Brett Kavanaugh (C) at the U.S. Capitol July 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to succeed retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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It was long anticipated that White House counsel Don McGahn would depart the White House as soon as his crowning achievement — the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court — was complete.

But tensions between President Donald Trump and McGahn also played a part in the White House counsel’s impending exit, as relations between the two men started to ebb as soon as Trump stepped foot in the Oval Office, Politico reported. Trump would regularly place the blame on McGahn for his frustrations with the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, the backlash over his faulty travel ban and his attorney general’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.

The two men’s main point of contention centered on the Russia investigation and McGahn’s role in managing it. The pair routinely fell into skirmishes over Trump’s belief that McGahn should’ve been doing more to squash it, according to four current and former administration officials who spoke to Politico. McGahn even threatened to resign last year after Trump prompted him to fire Mueller.

Amid these disagreements, the two men largely “avoided each other,” on former administration official told Politico, and tolerated one another over their mutual goal: stocking U.S. courts with conservative judges.

Read Politico’s full report here. 

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Notable Replies

  1. If not ending the Trump-Russia investigation and, especially, if talking to Mueller’s team gets you fired … what reward awaits he who would rid Trump of the Rigged Witch Hunt?

  2. Looks like those old game-show consolation prizes where you got a lifetime supply of mothballs or some kind of crap.

  3. No $50 Trump Cufflinks? Made of pewter and paste, advertised as gold and diamonds?

  4. The two men’s main point of contention centered on the Russia investigation and McGahn’s role in managing it. The pair routinely fell into skirmishes over Trump’s belief that McGahn should’ve been doing more to squash it

    Sounds unimportant. Not sure why McGahn and the SC’s team spoke for 30 hours. Maybe they were exchanging recipes for banana bread.

  5. “Johnny, tell Matt about our lovely parting gifts…”

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