Holy cow. That's a HUGE win for Mattis. He and Ricardel have clashed since day one, and she was seen as someone working behind the scenes to push him out. BACKGROUND: defensenews.com/pentagon/2017/…
"The president became involved in that decision at the urging of first lady Melania Trump, whose staff battled with Ms. Ricardel during the first lady’s trip to Africa last month over seating on the plane and requests to use National Security Council resources..."
That's interesting. Ricardel has a rep as a very skilled bureaucratic infighter, but hasn't handled the politics of things well (see Mattis). I almost wonder if Melania's team wanted to use NSC resources incorrectly and Ricardel refused without thinking of the politics.
Either way, if the WSJ is right, she would become the second Bolton loyalist to leave, after his chief of staff. Assuming Ricardel -- who was an early Trump person and part of his landing team at DoD -- doesn't land somewhere else in the admin, which she well might.
And as follow up, the NBC report says Kelly is likely to be pushed out in part over clashes with FLOTUS, Bolton and Ricardel, so really, who knows anymore. nbcnews.com/politics/donal…
"Kelly and Bolton also have clashed over Ricardel, the deputy national security adviser, four people familiar with the issue said. Bolton recently learned that Kelly has quietly mounted an effort to oust Ricardel, these people said, and was furious."
