- President Donald Trump and White House aides are reportedly frustrated with the chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, over not having a response plan for Trump's recent call with the Ukrainian president that has spurred calls for his impeachment.
- The White House released a memo of the call on September 25, which immediately ignited outrage against Trump for pressing a foreign leader to investigate Trump's political rival.
- CNN reported Saturday that though Trump reportedly didn't blame Mulvaney for the release of the memo, he has been angry that Mulvaney lacked a response plan for its contents.
- The White House has defended the Trump-Zelensky call by arguing that Trump had not been explicitly laying out a quid pro quo agreement exchanging US foreign aid for the Biden investigation.
- The White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told CNN that the story of Trump and aides being frustrated with Mulvaney was "manufactured palace intrigue."
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President Donald Trump and some of his aides are reportedly frustrated with the White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, over not having a strategy to defend his recent call with the Ukrainian president that has spurred calls for Trump's impeachment.
CNN reported Saturday that Mulvaney is on "shaky ground" over his handling of a memo summarizing the July 25 call.
The White House on September 25 released the call summary, which revealed that Trump had pressed President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. The memo was released after a whistleblower sought to notify Congress of the
Though Trump didn't blame Mulvaney for the release of the memo, according to CNN, he has been angry that Mulvaney lacked a response plan for the contents of the memo.
So far, the Trump administration has defended Trump's call with Zelensky by arguing that Trump did not lay out an explicit quid pro quo arrangement that would have exchanged US foreign aid with Zelensky's promise to investigate the Bidens.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham dismissed CNN's story about Mulvaney on Saturday, calling it "manufactured palace intrigue."
"The fact is that President Trump and this Administration have done nothing wrong," Grisham said in a statement. "Why would we need to implement a strategy to explain the contents of a document we willingly released? Sounds to me like more anonymous troublemakers working to stir the pot for their own selfish reasons."
A senior Mulvaney adviser also denied CNN's report, telling the network the story "literally has no basis in reality."
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