'It is hard to watch': Morale collapsing at White House after Trump refuses to fire bumbling Mark Meadows

According to a report from Politico, Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows has few admirers in the White House and his standing has fallen to the point where some advisers to the president have begged him to fire the former lawmaker.

Meadows, who stepped down from his seat in the House to work for Trump after the dismissal of previous chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, appears to never have gained the trust of many White House aides as he attached himself to the president and -- now that the coronavirus has run rampant through the White House -- the knives have come out because staffers believe he has put their lives at risk.

Politico reports, "... his management has left many inside the White House frustrated, including, at times, Trump himself, according to interviews with 10 current and former senior administration officials and Trump advisers. Numerous White House aides said they feel Meadows has failed to keep hundreds of aides safe, not communicating much about new positive diagnoses within the complex, or signaling what, if any, safety protocols were being adopted during a frightening seven-day stretch that saw the virus race around the administration. The lack of information has bred distrust and low staff morale in a White House already known for infighting."

With one former White House aide admitting anger aimed at Meadows has been “building for a long time, but this is an inflection point,” another put it more bluntly, telling Politico, "The president is the president — you go to work there knowing what he is like. But if I was a midlevel staffer there I’d be pretty pissed off at Meadows and these guys. It blows my mind. Maybe they didn’t give a shit about anything.”

According to the report, the tipping point for the chief of staff came last weekend when he told reporters off the record that the president was entering a "critical 48 hours" due to his COVID-19 infections which contradicted the official White House spin.

That, in turn, led to a flood of advice that the president dismiss Meadows which Trump, so far, has yet to do.

Add to that, Politico reports, Meadows is also under fire over his management of the White House.

A "former senior administration official said Meadows had done little to stabilize White House strategy more broadly during a frantic period for the country. 'It is hard to watch,' Politico reports with another senior official adding, “It's looking more and more like he took the job to get on TV and promote whatever future he sees for himself.”

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