Kellyanne Conway Warns White House Leakers: Trump Will Fire You

Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor, revealed to Fox News on Monday that disloyal staffers will be fired following the recent information leaks. In January, the chief of staff John Kelly banned personal cell phone use in the West Wing, but the list of embarrassing leaks keeps growing and ranges from comical to serious.

Quite a lot of name calling has taken place throughout President Trump’s term, such as him calling particular African countries “shitholes,” as well as chief of staff John Kelly calling Trump an “idiot.” Yet, the leaks became more damaging than name calling in April when the New York Times released the 49 questions special counsel Robert Mueller sent to Trump’s legal team. Conway’s comment comes after the most recent leak, in which it was revealed that White House aide Kelly Sadler responded to Senator John McCain’s opposition to Trump’s new CIA director in a closed-door meeting by saying, “he’s dying anyway.” This comment follows McCain’s announcement last year that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer. According to CNN, Sadler called McCain’s daughter to apologize for her comment, after which the White House released a statement saying, “We respect Senator McCain’s service to our nation, and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time.”

Following this leak, staffers were scolded by press secretary Sarah Sanders. Her disciplinary statements were leaked, as well. In response, Trump tweeted a statement of his own, because apparently that’s the only way the President communicates with his country anymore. He blamed the “so-called leaks” on the “Fake News Media,” capitalizing like a title as if it was an actual news station. He then went on to call the leakers “traitors and cowards,” and ended with a call to action: “we will find out who they are!”

Normally Trump’s tweets are a source of entertainment for the country, but never result in action. Yet, Conway’s remarks on Fox News seem to agree with Trump that action will be taken in the West Wing. Interviewer Martha MacCallum asked Conway if she expects personnel changes, to which she responded, “I do, actually. Yes I do.“ Despite the previous miscommunication that is present in most statements from the White House, Conway and Trump seem to be delivering the same message this time.

Conway stated:

I think the President is on solid ground here, that if you work at the pleasure of the President, like we all do here and you have the privilege and the blessing of coming every day to work in this White House on behalf of the nation that we all love, then you want to be competent, you want to be loyal and you ought to be able to reinforce the agenda that prevailed here.

It is clear from the amount of information that has been revealed by multiple staffers, and continues to be leaked, that the staff of the West Wing is not in support of this administration. Despite both Conway and Trump’s calls to action, stopping the leaks will be a difficult task. Yet, this won’t stop their attempts, as they try to solve the problem by firing any potential “cowards” and “traitors.” Bring in the camera crew—the White House is about to descend into a full-on episode of The Apprentice.