It wouldn’t be a week at the Trump White House if there weren’t talk of a staff shakeup, and that’s how this week appears to be closing. First, CNN reported Thursday the Pentagon was “considering options” for moving national security adviser H.R. McMaster into a four-star general role back at the Defense Department. The report cited “months of personal tension” between McMaster and President Trump. Reuters reported later the same day that both McMaster and White House chief of staff John Kelly “might quit soon” due to differences with Trump.
McMaster has long been in a precarious position—many in the West Wing say Trump bristles at what he perceives as the Army general’s condescension. Last weekend’s tweet criticizing McMaster for what he “forgot” to say about Russian meddling was a good window into the troubled relationship. It hasn’t helped that the factional West Wing has had its own anti-McMaster partisans, centered around the former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Whether he’s being pushed out or considering leaving on his own accord, McMaster hasn’t been in a great position for months, despite press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claiming earlier this week President Trump “still had confidence” in his NSA.
But Kelly’s potential departure, Reuters reports, could be for something more than a bad personal relationship:
President Trump pledged for the second straight day to take action to prevent future school shootings, floating a number of possible measures to increase security at schools and restrict young and unstable people’s access to firearms.
“I called many senators last night, many congressmen,” Trump said at a Thursday White House meeting with state and local officials on school safety. “They’re into doing background checks that they wouldn’t be thinking about maybe two weeks ago.”
Trump also seemed to express support for a policy some have suggested to raise the federal purchasing age for semi-automatic weapons to 21, saying “we’re going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18.”
Trump followed these up with a laundry list of other policy ideas, including arming “highly adept people” in schools to fight back against potential shooters—“we have to get smart on gun-free zones”—reopening mental institutions, and cracking down on violent movies and video games.
“We have to look at the Internet because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed,” Trump said. “And we have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it.”
One proposal Trump isn’t interested in: restricting gun ownership. “I was watching a weak, ineffective politician last night,” Trump said, “and he was talking about no guns, no this, no that. And yet, he’s surrounded by three guys carrying guns. I said, ‘Well, when are they going to give up their guns?’ They’re not going to give up their guns. But he wants everybody else to have no guns.”
On the President’s Schedule—Trump will address the Conservative Political Action Conference in person Friday morning. The annual gathering of conservative activists is held just outside of Washington. Upon his return to the White House, Trump will greet Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, where they will have a meeting, a working lunch, and a joint press conference.
By the Way—The United States remains without an ambassador to Australia, one of our closest allies. The president finally nominated Navy admiral Harry Harris to the position earlier this month, though Harris has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.
Vice President Mike Pence spoke at CPAC Thursday morning, praising the administration’s successful passage of tax reform last year and promising that recent defeats would not end their efforts to build Trump’s signature border wall. “President Trump promised to enforce our laws, secure our borders, and today, illegal crossings along our southern border have been cut nearly in half,” Pence said. “And make no mistake about it: we’re going to build that wall.”
Pence also cautioned conservatives to stay motivated, warning that Democrats were “doing everything they can” to win Congress back in the midterm elections later this year. “It would be a disaster for our cause if Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House again,” Pence said. “But we’re not going to let it happen. This movement should know it’s a very real threat.”
Profile of the Day—From GQ: “What Ever Happened to Brendan Fraser”
2018 Watch—Dan Crenshaw is one of nine Republicans running for an open House seat outside Houston, with a primary on March 6. My colleague John McCormack profiles Crenshaw, a Navy SEAL with multiple Middle East tours and a Purple Heart, in the new issue of the magazine. Here’s an excerpt:
Education Watch—Is there a Democratic purge of charter-school supporters in the party afoot?
“Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are both charter school advocates, and school choice is an issue that is close to the hearts of many major Democratic donors, especially business leaders. But some charter school advocates have begun to despair that their cause could be a losing one as Democrats move toward what promises to be a divisive presidential primary,” reports BuzzFeed. “Like everything else, both sides say, it’s all about Donald Trump.”
Song of the Day—“Forty Thousand Headmen” by Traffic
