But White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rejected such criticism.
“I don’t see anything inappropriate with the president’s comments,” Meadows said, adding that “those were the policy differences the president highlighted” with respect to Mr. Biden.
As President, Mr. Trump is not bound by the Hatch Act, which was passed to ensure that federal employees were promoted on merit and not politically coerced. However, their subordinates are obligated, but Trump has chosen not to punish them in the various cases in which the Office of the Special Adviser has found them in violation.
In June 2019, the Office of Special Counsel, headed by a former career prosecutor and Republican Congressional assistant appointed by Mr. Trump, released a 17-page report detailing “numerous violations of the Hatch Act” by Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor.
In requesting the removal of Ms. Conway, the office warned that if she does not punish her, “it would send a message to all federal employees that they do not need to comply with the Hatch Act restrictions.” But the White House dismissed the call, saying it was “as scandalous as it was unprecedented,” and took no action.
Ms. Conway had previously received reprimands from lawmakers on both sides in March 2017 when, speaking from the White House Information Room during an appearance on Fox News, she urged viewers to buy products sold by Ms. Trump. that Nordstrom had recently left in its stores. .
On Tuesday, Trump posted a photo on Twitter that shows her smiling and holding a can of Goya beans. A message with him said, in English and Spanish, “If it’s Goya, it has to be good.”
His tweet was a clear response to calls for a boycott of Goya Foods after chief executive officer Robert Unanue said at a White House event last week that his fellow Latinos were “truly blessed” to have Trump as President. That event itself, organized around a largely symbolic executive order on Hispanic “prosperity,” had a very political feel to it and opened with an audience member yelling, “Four more years!”
