NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump said during an interview aired Sundayevening that he doesn’t “trust everybody” in the White House, but that hewas “comfortable” in the leadership role after almost two turbulent yearsin office.
His comment came in response to a television interview given last week byU.S. First Lady Melania Trump, in which she said there are people who workin the White House she can’t trust.
“I feel the same way,” Trump told CBS’s “60 Minutes” news programme onSunday. “I don’t trust everybody in the White House. I’ll be honest withyou.”
Trump went on to say he was “guarded.”“I’m not a baby. It’s a tough business. This … is a vicious place.Washington DC is a vicious, vicious place. The attacks, the bad mouthing,the speaking behind your back. –but– you know, and in my way, I feel verycomfortable here.”The president went on in the interview to call reports of chaos in theWhite House “fake news,” insisting he has “people on standby” to join theadministration.“I have people now on standby that will be phenomenal that will come intothe administration,” Trump said. “They’ll be phenomenal.”
Correspondent Leslie Stahl, who conducted the interview, pointed out thatTrump’s administration has seen record levels of turnover. “More people aregonna go?” she asked.
“At some point, everybody leaves,” Trump replied. “People leave. That’sWashington.”Trump declined to say whether Defence Secretary James Mattis is going toexit, but said he’s “sort of a Democrat.”Multiple news outlets have reported that Trump has been weighing potentialreplacements for Mattis in recent weeks.
Veteran American journalist Bob Woodward in his new book “Fear: Trump inthe White House,” which was released in July, reported on a chaotic WhiteHouse in which staffers sometimes seek to stave off Trump’s impulses andregularly bad-mouth the president behind closed doors.
Trump and multiple administration officials have denied the accounts in thebook, though Woodward has insisted he can substantiate them with documentsand hours of recorded interviews. – APP