White House officials are angry with Trumpworld plotters for cornering the president and tricking him into making decisions after his senior aides have gone home, sources told the Daily Beast.
A source close to Donald Trump told PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s sister Substack: “Certain people—bad actors—have found ways, like calling at night when his senior crew of advisers is not around, to push things through.”
As PunchUp revealed Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin secured Trump’s nomination of his old buddy Richard “Lance” Schroyer as ICE director by pitching to the president directly in the White House on Saturday, June 27, while his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was at her daughter Caroline’s wedding.
Wiles found out with the rest of the world, via Truth Social, as did Trump’s immigration lead, Stephen Miller, and border czar, Tom Homan, as the outlet reported in June.
Mullin was following a playbook that has succeeded before. Following Monday’s story about Mullin’s Oval Office foray, multiple sources close to the administration told PunchUp that then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 54, and her closest adviser, Corey Lewandowski, 52, also made a sneak visit to Trump at the height of the backlash over the fatal January shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, in Minneapolis.
Noem and Lewandowski appeared in the White House on the evening of Friday, Jan. 30, after his top team had left for the weekend.
It was at least their second personal appeal to Trump that week—CNN previously reported that the pair had spent nearly two hours with Trump in the Oval Office the Monday before, at Noem’s request.
Lewandowski—long rumored to be Noem’s lover, which both have denied—is an old ally and campaign manager for Trump. He makes political capital of his long-standing relationship with the president.
Their secret evening visit immediately paid off. At 9:57 p.m. that night, Trump posted on Truth Social: “The Radical Left Lunatics, Insurrectionists, Agitators, and Thugs, are going after Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, because she is a woman, and has done a really GREAT JOB!” He signed off: “Thank you to Secretary Kristi Noem.”
The lesson that Trumpworld officials appear to have now drawn is that if Trump can be caught out of hours, when the president’s top aides aren’t patrolling the Oval Office, he’ll give them what they want, according to PunchUp.
The insider explained, “Donald usually forces officials to debate issues in front of his senior aides, before he then tackles a decision based on the totality of information that he has, and his senior aides enable those decisions to happen. Which is why certain people want to catch him on his own. It means he doesn’t have as many opinions to go off.”
The Daily Beast contacted the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Despite a senior Trump aide confirming that PunchUp’s story was correct, White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the report was “wrong,” without specifying which parts. She added: “President Trump hears multiple points of view before he reaches a decision.”
A DHS spokesperson did not answer questions about Noem, Lewandowski, and Mullin’s secretive trips to see Trump, and instead praised the nomination of Schroyer. Noem and Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment.
Regarding Mullin, administration sources warned that his weekend maneuver may not have been his wisest. Wiles was a supporter of Mullin’s elevation to DHS in March, and going behind her back may have damaged that relationship while he is under pressure from all sides over his running of the department—including the growing revolt over Schroyer’s nomination and his migrant detention and deportation rates.
Perhaps ominously for Mullin, there is a sting in the tail of the Noem precedent. Her Friday night charm offensive bought her just 34 more days in the job.
Trump fired Noem on March 5… and handed her department to Mullin.
Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.
