WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump privately questioned his team’s response to domestic-abuse allegations against a key lieutenant who resigned this week, placing much of the blame on two senior aides who had been deemed untouchable inside a White House marked by frequent turnover.

Mr. Trump’s private criticisms about John Kelly, his chief of staff, and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, contributed to turmoil inside the West Wing on Friday, multiple White House officials said.

Mr. Trump’s scrutiny of Ms. Hicks surprised people inside the White House because he has rarely questioned his longtime aide. Ms. Hicks has been in a relationship with Rob Porter, the staff secretary forced out this past week following published reports that he abused his two ex-wives.

Mr. Porter said many of the published allegations about him were false.

The president reserved his most biting remarks, a person close to the situation said, for Mr. Kelly, whose about-face on the accusations against Mr. Porter capped a tumultuous week for the chief of staff.


Mr. Kelly initially defended Mr. Porter, vouching for his integrity publicly and privately urging him to fight the allegations and remain in the job, according to White House officials. But he then reversed himself and accepted Mr. Porter’s resignation after graphic photos emerged Wednesday of the alleged abuse.

By then, Mr. Kelly was in damage control. In an email to White House aides sent at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, he told staff that the White House takes domestic violence “very seriously” and people shaken by the allegations against Mr. Porter can seek counseling services through the White House.

In a meeting with senior staff Friday, he stressed that he acted quickly when he realized the severity of the accusations. Two White House officials said they were uncomfortable with that account, with one saying Mr. Kelly was trying to “muck up the waters.”

Mr. Kelly hasn’t offered to resign, said Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman. He said the president has “complete confidence” in Mr. Kelly and Ms. Hicks. The White House didn’t make either official available for comment.


Mr. Trump, commenting publicly for the first time on the matter Friday, emphasized Mr. Porter’s denials of abuse, but didn’t address his staff’s handling of the matter. He said of Mr. Porter: “As you probably know, he says he is innocent.” Mr. Trump said Mr. Porter did “very well” in the White House and “we wish him well.”

Jennifer Willoughby, Mr. Porter’s second wife, said of the White House reaction to the allegations: “It’s troubling to me, and I think reflective of a greater problem in American society…the disbelief or disregarding of women.”

The president’s private frustration with officials’ handling of Mr. Porter’s departure has put senior aides on the defensive, and contributed to an atmosphere where aides privately accused each other of trying to use the crisis to advance their own agendas.

In the West Wing press office, communications officer Mercedes Schlapp told some staffers to come to her with questions because Ms. Hicks was “dealing with a lot” and “not able to perform the duties of communications director right now,” according to three people familiar with the meeting. Two people described Ms. Schlapp’s move as a power play, while a third said Ms. Schlapp was only trying to protect the communications team.


Ms. Schlapp said she didn’t make the comment. “This accusation is completely false,” Ms. Schlapp said. “Hope and I work hand-in-hand on important policy rollouts and on all matter of strategic communications. Hope is such an important member of our team and I’m proud to serve with her in advancing the president’s agenda.”

Broadly, Mr. Trump recently has started to signal some frustration with Mr. Kelly, according to friends and advisers. Mr. Trump has already found workarounds to some of Mr. Kelly’s attempts to limit access to the president, such as relying on first lady Melania Trump to field calls from friends who don’t want to wait for the chief’s protocols.

Mr. Trump’s friends said the president has started to ask them about Mr. Kelly’s performance. One person said the president has sought opinions on potential replacements, such as Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

These people cautioned that Mr. Trump didn’t appear ready to part ways with Mr. Kelly. But after six months on the job, some aides inside the White House have started to question how much longer Mr. Kelly will remain.


“I would say that [Mr. Kelly] is doing quite well, given that we have the most unconventional president in our lifetimes,” said Bill Daley, a former chief of staff under Barack Obama. “Going back to the first nine months, it was ‘The Gong Show’ over there. At least that’s gone away.”

The former four-star general—brought on as chief of staff in July from his post as Homeland Security secretary to bring more order to the West Wing—was already having a difficult week before the abuse allegations against Mr. Porter emerged. Mr. Kelly was criticized this week for disparaging undocumented immigrants who hadn’t signed up to be shielded from deportation under a program created by former President Barack Obama. Mr. Kelly said those who hadn’t signed up were either too afraid or “too lazy to get off their asses.”

A rare unforced error last month drew the president’s ire when Mr. Kelly described his boss’s campaign promises on immigration as not “fully informed.” There also appeared to be distance between Mr. Kelly and the president earlier this week when the staff chief said he was doubtful the White House would extend a March 5 deadline protecting young immigrants from deportation, despite the president saying several times that we was open to precisely that possibility.

Mr. Porter’s resignation marks a blow to Mr. Kelly. As the chief of staff seized control of the West Wing, Mr. Porter played an increasingly important role, and Mr. Kelly relied on him. Mr. Porter predated his boss’s arrival in the White House—he was an acquaintance of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, when both attended college, and he was hired at the start of the administration by former staff chief Reince Priebus—but he became an increasingly influential figure in recent months.

A former Senate staffer whose father, Roger Porter, was an adviser to former President George H.W. Bush, Rob Porter was one of the few senior West Wing officials with experience in Washington. Mr. Porter decided which memos reached the president and which staffers’ viewpoints were pertinent. He also ensured there was a response inside the White House to the president’s directives or questions.

When accusations from both of Mr. Porter’s ex-wives were first published this week, Mr. Kelly offered a full-throated defense of the staff secretary. He called Mr. Porter a friend and confidant, and “a man of true integrity and honor.”

Mr. Kelly then issued a second statement Wednesday night saying he was “shocked” by the new allegations. He said he had accepted Mr. Porter’s resignation.

White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said Thursday that Mr. Kelly wasn’t made fully aware of the allegations until Wednesday, when photos of Colbie Holderness, Mr. Porter’s first wife, were published showing a black eye she says was the result of a fight with Mr. Porter.

Asked Thursday why Mr. Kelly and other White House officials initially issued statements supporting Mr. Porter, Mr. Shah said: “I think it’s fair to say that we all could have done better over the last few hours, or last few days, in dealing with this situation.”

A second White House official, David Sorensen, resigned Friday amid domestic abuse allegations, the White House said. The departure of Mr. Sorensen, a speech writer, was first reported by the Washington Post.

“Before we were contacted by the media, we learned last night that there were allegations,” Mr. Shah said Friday. “We immediately confronted the staffer, he denied the allegations and he resigned today.”

—Rebecca Ballhaus contributed to this article.

Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com and Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com