Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly angry that he can't get rid of a scandal-plagued aide with ties to President Donald Trump's closest aides.
According to a Thursday report by The Daily Mail, Rubio wants to get rid of Gavin Wax, the chief of staff in the State Department's Washington headquarters, but he's been able to stay on because of an "obsessive loyalty" to Trump and a close relationship with White House aides. The Daily Mail reported that Wax's most direct line to Trump is through Natalie Harp, the president's devoted aide.
Wax is in hot water after hosting Serbian right-wing, pro-Kremlin politicians for lunch in an executive dining room despite warnings from career State Department officials not to do so, The Daily Mail reported. Wax saved himself with a "Hail Mary" move, an anonymous source told The Daily Mail.
The move was reportedly to call Boris Epshteyn, Trump's personal senior counselor, the anonymous source told The Daily Mail, but Wax's "most direct line" is through Harp, another source said. However, The Daily Mail wasn't able to confirm that Harp had any role in saving Wax's job.
The Daily Mail reported that five senior Trump administration sources did confirm that Epshteyn responded to Wax's appeal and took his issue of saving his job to Trump.
Even though the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and senior State Department officials had coordinated with the State Department on a plan to place Wax on leave, a single advisor overruled the plan and kept Wax in place.
"It signals to everyone else in the department that if you have the ear of someone close to the president, you are untouchable no matter what you do," an anonymous State Department official told The Daily Mail.
However, the decision to keep Wax in place "allegedly infuriated Marco Rubio," who "has since made clear that Wax cannot stay in his department," The Daily Mail wrote, citing three anonymous senior sources.
State Department spokesperson Dylan Johnson denied the reporting about Rubio when The Daily Mail asked, however. "This is false and never happened," Johnson said.