Sources inside the White House say Trump and company are "panicking" as his administration masterminds jump ship for more lucrative jobs elsewhere, says the Daily Mail.
“Susie Wiles summoned her top advisers to her West Wing office just after 8.15 am Friday for a crisis meeting as a wave of stories about Trump allies cashing in on their access threatened to swamp the White House,” reports the Daily Mail, and the president's chief of staff was “panicked,” said a source familiar with the meeting. Wiles and the administration are still coming to grips with the political and media fallout from two of the president's top political lieutenants taking profitable paydays with foreign entities.
Additionally, Daily Mail said anxiety was building around reports about Wiles’ own daughters' pro-Russia foreign lobbying work, according to two sources familiar with the mood in the building.
The Daily Mail's sources relay that the White House was “blindsided last week” after reports that Chris LaCivita and James Blair, Trump's trusted political hands, had spent the October 4 weekend in the Balkans, advising a Putin-aligned government that was claiming election victory. Reports claim the men traveled to Republika Srpska, a self-governing part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There they "consulted" on voting issues ahead of Sunday's election for the nationalist party.
Trump was infuriated at the news LaCivita and Blair — the leaders of Trump's political operation for the 2026 midterms — were out of the country “scoring handsome consulting fees” with just weeks to go before November and Republicans fighting for their lives to preserve House and Senate majorities.
According to the Daily Mail, White House sources say Wiles “first met with her policy right-hand Walker Barrett before assembling other top White House aides, including Megan Bauer, head of Cabinet Affairs, for the early-morning powwow.”
When contacted, White House spokespeople described the meeting as just the 'usual' Friday morning meeting, but an administration official said Trump was 'furious,' and the president has been desperately “working the phones, calling allies to ask how he should handle the embarrassing disclosure about LaCivita and Blair.”
The Daily Mail adds that the White House declined to describe the nature of the conversations she had with staff that Friday.
Days earlier, Trump claimed he saw no conflict with LaCivita and Blair’s off-site money-making, but sources say behind the scenes “that tenor had changed,” with the turmoil handing Democrats fresh ammunition just as early voting begins and the party’s grip on Congress appears slippery, Republican operatives told to the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail says representatives for LaCivita, Blair was and Jared Kushner were contacted for comment, but failed to respond in time for the Wednesday article.
