A close ally of Donald Trump, whose entreaties to the president to select a friend of his as the transportation secretary fell on deaf ears, resorted to having his team search for “dirt” on eventual pick Sean Duffy, reports The Guardian.
According to a new book coming out from ABC’s Jonathan Karl, the former reality TV personality lobbied to be tapped for the UN ambassador slot but Trump had already promised that spot to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), which later fell apart because he needed her to remain in the House.
Trump’s decision to offer Duffy, whose wife Rachel Campos-Duffy is also a former reality TV star and a current Fox News host, the transportation job disrupted a plan by investor Howard Lutnick, now Trump's Commerce Secretary, to cajole the president into selecting former Uber senior executive Emil Michael for the position.
According to the Guardian report, the choice of Duffy then set in motion a plan by Lutnick to undercut Duffy’s attempt to be a part of the administration.
“Lutnick’s team had to go back nearly a decade – to the early days of the 2016 Republican presidential primary – to find anything Duffy had said that was remotely negative about Donald Trump," Karl wrote. "He finally found a September 2015 interview in which the then congressman had said he didn’t believe Trump was a real conservative and didn’t think he would win the party’s nomination.”
The report adds that ploy almost worked, with Trump waffling, but a phone call from the president to Duffy and his wife put his mind at ease about his loyalty by explaining “that Sean had long since changed his views on Trump’s conservative bona fides.”
According to a Thursday report from Politico, Duffy is now facing a revolt from some GOP lawmakers who want him to step down from his dual role as the NASA administrator.
You can read more from the Guardian here.