Westerhout, Trump’s longtime executive assistant, abruptly resigned from the White House in August 2019 after coming under fire for sharing intimate details about the president’s family with the press. In the months before that, she had also sought to push the boundaries of her role to include a broader set of tasks and include foreign travel.
Days later, POLITICO reported on the nature of Westerhout’s remarks to reporters, who attended an off-the-record dinner that she and then-White House Deputy Secretary of State Hogan Gidley held with members of the media that Trump’s vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Westerhout bragged to reporters that she had a better relationship with Trump than his daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, and that the president did not like being in pictures with Tiffany because he considered her overweight. Westerhout also jokingly told reporters that Trump could not choose Tiffany from a crowd.
Trump confirmed at the time that Westerhout had been fired for discussing his children with reporters, calling her remarks “a little hurtful.” But he also praised Westerhout as a “very good person” and said he “had her wishes.”
The weekend after Westerhout’s oyster, Trump tweeted that although she “has a fully-fledged confidentiality agreement”, she is a very good person and I do not think there would ever be a reason to use it. She called me yesterday to apologize, had a bad night. I fully understood and forgave them! I love Tiffany, does it great! ”
The president’s latest social media post on the matter came half an hour after Westerhout appeared on Fox News’ ‘Fox & Friends’ on Tuesday morning to promote her upcoming book. In the interview, she answered questions about the controversy that resulted in her dismissal.
‘You know what? I had a bad night. And a great end to the judgment cost me my dream job. On a rare day away, after a few drinks by the pool, I accepted an invitation to an off-the-record dinner with four reporters and a colleague of mine from the White House, ”said Westerhout.
“And at that dinner I said some things I did not mean and that I should never have said,” she continued. “And that’s me deeply sorry, but I’m taking full responsibility for my actions that evening and I’m really sorry I hurt people I care about very, very much.”
