Trump Has Reportedly Suggested Removing WH Officials Testifying in the Impeachment Hearings

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President Donald Trump, frustrated by the widening scope of the impeachment inquiry and the parade of administration officials providing damaging testimony, has discussed with his aides possible ways of ridding the White House of those people he considers disloyal.

According to reporting from CNN, these discussions explored preemptively re-assigning officials on loan to the White House (like Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman) back to their original agency. Trump is asking anew how witnesses such as Vindman and Ambassador Bill Taylor came to work for him, people familiar with the matter said. He has suggested again they be dismissed, even as advisers warn him firing them could be viewed as retaliation., is another tactic under consideration.

“Trump is asking anew how witnesses such as Vindman and Ambassador Bill Taylor came to work for him,” sources told CNN. “He has suggested again they be dismissed, even as advisers warn him firing them could be viewed as retaliation.”

These discussions come amidst a very public smear campaign against impeachment witnesses by right-wing pundits, including most of the Fox News and Fox Business Network primetime hosts. Host Lou Dobbs, one of the president’s favorite media figures, has specifically attacked Vindman as “delusional” and demanded his ouster.

Trump, who prizes loyalty, has become increasingly agitated that the impeachment case against him is being built almost entirely by people still working in his administration, which makes it harder to dismiss their testimony as biased.

“It’s one of the persistent anomalies of the impeachment inquiry,” CNN reports, “most of the witnesses airing concerns at Trump’s approach to Ukraine remain employed by him, despite his claims they are ‘Never Trumpers’ and his overt suggestions they’ve already been fired.”