Image : Associated Press

Donald Trump’s personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, has resigned, in what the New York Times called an “abrupt and unexpected departure” and what sure sounds to me more like a firing. Her “decision to leave” came after her boss learned that she had, in the words of the Times, “indiscreetly shared details about his family and the Oval Office operations she was part of at a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near Bedminster, N.J., during the president’s working vacation.” In other words, she’s a leaker!


Westerhout, who is said to have been so upset that Trump won that she cried on election night, somehow wormed her way into a key role in the Oval Office, where she became one of the few means of reaching Trump directly. “Madeleine is the key,” Trump reportedly cryptically told Bob Woodward.

The former Pure Barre instructor (of course) and Republican operative—she had been the assistant to the Republican National Committee’s Katie Walsh before joining the White House staff—enjoyed, in the words of the Times, “unique access” to her boss, and at times publicly defended him.


Interestingly enough, one of those times came when someone leaked Trump’s schedule, which showed that much of his day was filled with so-called “executive time.” “What these don’t show are the hundreds of calls and meetings @realDonaldTrump takes everyday,” Westerhout tweeted, according to news reports from the time (her account is now private). “This POTUS is working harder for the American people than anyone in recent history.” Madeleine, we know it was you!

Westerhout was also, according to the Times, once “responsible for printing out a piece of paper that Mr. Trump held up and referred to at a public event.” For her role as Trump’s assistant, she was reportedly paid $130,000 per year, which somehow is both too little money and entirely too much all at once.