If Tom Bossert had any sense beforehand he would be out of a job on Tuesday, he didn’t show it over the weekend. President Trump’s homeland security adviser spoke on behalf of the White House about Syria and national security on ABC News’s This Week Sunday. And in an appearance later that day at the Cipher Brief’s annual cybersecurity conference, Bossert spoke about the administration’s work to combat threats and downplayed the characterizations the White House is chaotic. “You won’t believe this, but this White House seems to function just about the same as every other White House,” he said. “At the end of the day, the only thing that creates instability or the perception of it is, a, the coverage, and b, the turnover.”
In less than 48 hours, Bossert would resign his White House post. Asked Tuesday if the new national security adviser, John Bolton, forced Bossert from his role, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not deny it. “I’m not going to get into specific details about the ongoings of personnel,” Sanders said. “But I can tell you that he resigned. The president feels he’s done a great job and wishes him the best as he moves forward.”
Bossert’s resignation, possibly at the behest of Bolton, was a shock to the West Wing. Bossert was regarded by his colleagues as a serious public servant and a valuable public face for the administration, particularly during the response to last year’s hurricanes.
His departure, along with that of National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, suggested that fears of a Bolton purge—which chief of staff John Kelly had calmed nervous staffers about soon after Bolton was named—were credible. The result? Bolton is inheriting an increasingly demoralized NSC staff in a West Wing that has seen a higher turnover rate than normal, even for Trump.
Cohen Watch—My colleague Andrew Egger lays out in detail how Monday’s early-morning FBI raid on Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office wasn’t the work of Robert Mueller’s special counsel, despite the president’s conflation of the two. Egger also interviews Sol Wisenberg, one of the prosecutors in the Whitewater investigation, about how Mueller’s decision to refer the case that led to the Cohen raid to the Southern District of New York was appropriate.
“He’s learned from the Ken Starr experience: Don’t get into sex,” Wisenberg told Egger. “So he’s referred it out; they’re not interested in that. It’s totally appropriate if he’s come across information that he doesn’t want to handle that he refer it out. . . . I think that he knows he’d really be subject to criticism if he got into the Stormy Daniels thing.”
One More Thing—Responding to the Cohen news, President Trump on Monday blasted the special counsel as “a real disgrace” and “an attack on our country” by people “with the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to elaborate on the president’s comments Tuesday, saying only that “I think that the president has been clear that he thinks that this has gone too far.” Sanders also couldn’t say whether Cohen still represents Trump. “I would refer you to Michael Cohen on that,” she said.
President Trump on Tuesday quietly signed an executive order intended to strengthen work requirements for federal welfare programs, calling on his cabinet to examine ways to increase enforcement of work requirements and propose additional requirements within the next 90 days. The text of the order argues that “many of the programs designed to help families have instead delayed economic independence, perpetuated poverty, and weakened family bonds.”
“The welfare system has grown into a large bureaucracy that might be susceptible to measuring success by how many people are enrolled in a program rather than by how many have moved from poverty into financial independence,” the order continues.
By strengthening enforcement of work requirements, an administration official said Tuesday, the White House hopes both to ensure that welfare spending goes to those who really need it and to motivate those who are able to pursue financial independence. Despite a strong economy and low unemployment, the administration insists, welfare enrollment for able-bodied adults is at a record high.
Quote of the Day—“Sometimes, as Coach Saban likes to say, you flat out made them quit. They quit. We’re doing that to a lot of people too.” – President Trump, at a White House ceremony honoring the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, April 10, 2018
Senate Watch—The Washington Post reports: “Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp: Trump ‘asked me to switch parties’”
Song of the Day—“Middle of Nowhere” by Hot Hot Heat
