Donald Trump reportedly issued an order banning White House advisers from listening to his telephone conversations after he was informed that his second chief of staff, John Kelly, had done so during his tenure as the then-president’s top aide.
According to the New York Post, Jared Kushner writes in his upcoming memoir Breaking History that Mr Trump was “unaware that the former Marine Corps general-turned-White House chief of staff was listening to his phone calls” — a standard practice in previous administrations — until after he replaced Mr Kelly in late 2018.
The Post also reported that Mr Kushner, who was a senior adviser in Mr Trump’s White House and is also his son-in-law, reveals how Mr Kelly’s replacement, ex-South Carolina congressman turned Office of Management and Budget boss Mick Mulvaney, informed Mr Trump that Mr Kelly had listened in on his calls just before his last day.
“Before we departed, Mulvaney and I met with the president to discuss his upcoming schedule. Then Mulvaney handed Trump a document to sign,” Mr Kushner wrote, according to the Post.
Mr Kushner recalled that Mr Mulvaney said the document would “end the practice Kelly started of listening to all of your phone calls” and told Mr Trump that Mr Kelly had “given himself the ability to listen surreptitiously to the president’s calls”.
Although it is not uncommon for top aides to listen in on a president’s calls to remain apprised of what is said and what promises, if any, a president might make, Mr Kushner said Mr Trump became upset after finding out that Mr Kelly had listened to his telephone conversations.
“Kelly did what? End that immediately,” Mr Trump said, according to Mr Kushner.
One ex-White House official told the Post it was “crazy” for Mr Trump to have ever assumed that no one in the White House was listening in on calls made as part of his official duties.
But during his time in the White House, Mr Trump exhibited a penchant for secrecy that often violated federal record-keeping laws.
According to Politico, staffers in the White House office responsible for compliance with the Presidential Records Act often had to piece together papers Mr Trump tore up after he was finished reading them.
Mr Trump also frequently took great pains to avoid having his phone calls documented in any way. The House January 6 select committee investigation into the riot Mr Trump fomented to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory found a gap in White House phone logs covering the entire period of the riot that day.
