President Trump is reportedly “furious” with White House chief of staff John Kelly after Kelly told a group of Democratic lawmakers that some of Trump’s campaign promises on immigration were “uninformed.”
The president thought Kelly’s comments made him look like he was giving in to the demands of Democrats, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
He also believed the comments made him appear as though he was a child, sources told the Post.
The story comes after Kelly reportedly said that some of Trump’s immigration policy pledges from the campaign trail, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, were “uninformed.”
{mosads}Kelly allegedly told lawmakers during the meeting that Mexico will not “directly” pay for the wall, which Trump repeatedly promised during 2016.
Kelly later said in an interview that Trump has “evolved” with the way he looks at things.
“[Trump’s] changed his attitude toward the DACA issue and even the wall,” Kelly said, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for young immigrants.
“[Trump] has evolved in the way he’s looked at things. Campaigns and governing are two different things.”
On Thursday morning, Trump pushed back on Kelly’s comments, tweeting that his vision of a border wall with Mexico has “never changed or evolved.”
“The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,” Trump wrote in an early-morning tweet.
Christopher Ruddy, the president of Newsmax and a friend of Trump, told the Post that Trump is “pretty happy” with Kelly’s job overall.
“Trump’s the type of guy who will dress you down if he doesn’t like what you say, but it’s got to be a whole long list of things before he takes action against somebody. Generally, in my personal view, he’s very happy with General Kelly, overall,” Ruddy told the Post.
But he noted that immigration is an important issue for the president.
“In President Trump’s world, you can have disagreements privately or publicly, but immigration is a hot-button issue for him and it’s something he doesn’t like to see disagreements on, especially publicly,” Ruddy said.
“He knows how important it is to his base.”