At the White House, Meadows quickly learned to give in to the existing power structure instead of trying to take it over. That essentially means acknowledging that the west wing is the domain of Jared Kushner, a third senior administration official joked.
Earlier in his tenure, Meadows clashed with the president’s son-in-law in trying to prevent him from presenting the president with not-yet-fully-formed plans related to Covid-19, such as the idea that Google was developing a website investigation that would tell them Americans should be tested for the virus.
Meadows also sought to exercise control from the outset by supervising and approving all promotions, raises, presidential commissions, and staff detainees to the White House to ensure that the chief’s office controlled the staff. That worked well until Kushner complained and told Meadows that his staff was off limits. Meadows eventually agreed to Kushner’s demands, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Kushner’s aide and Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz saw his salary rise from 2019 to 2020 from $ 158,000 to $ 183,000, according to White House data, making him one of the highest-paid employees on par with Meadows, Hope Hicks, and Pat Cipollone, the lead White House attorney.
Now Meadows and Kushner huddle each morning along with a few other top officials. Concerned about the leaks, Meadows has reduced the number of large management meetings to just once a week.
Repressing the leaks was part of Meadows’ sales pitch to the president when he spoke to him about the job. Recently, the chief of staff has been trying to investigate how the key details of the small Oval Office meetings ended up in the headlines so quickly. He has also been alarmed by intelligence leaks that the Russians attempted to pay Taliban fighters with generous money to kill Americans, along with the story that the president descended on the White House bunker on a night of particularly volatile protests in Washington. DC
While senior White House officials praise Meadows’ work ethic and point to his role in negotiating the CARES package or keeping immigration front and center as examples of success, morale within the White House remains noticeably low. With ongoing leak investigations, Trump’s crash in polls, and dire coronavirus headlines, West Wing employees are feeling demoralized.
Staff streams, from top aides to low-level, have gone to the White House in recent months. This has left Trump with an unusually young and inexperienced staff at a time when he faces a pandemic and recession, both of which have changed his presidency and threaten his reelection.
Officials and allies say Meadows has no regrets about taking the job because he enjoys the benefits of working in the White House, either flying on Air Force One or appearing at events alongside his wife. A copy of an Air Force One menu hangs in his West Wing office, along with other memorabilia signed by the president, two officials said. Still, the job is much more complex than Meadows realized.
At the same time, conservatives are starting to complain, anonymously, for now, that Meadows has not lived up to his reputation as a former president of the House Freedom Caucus or has pressured the administration to follow those values. .
“Conservatives want action,” said a Republican close to the White House. “They want Attorney General Barr’s program to reflect what Trump’s tweets say: Why isn’t the Justice Department arresting thousands of people who are burning cities?”
