What the Hell Is Going On

Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump has been trying to spin the continual chaos around him—including the departure of top aides like Hope Hicks and Gary Cohn resigning—as an example of a calm White House that is merely “seeking perfection.”

But on Tuesday, some bajillion things happened that show only what we’ve seen over and over again—a White House that is in complete disarray.

First, Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Steve Goldstein, one of Tillerson’s top aides, released a statement contradicting the White House’s official account of the firing, saying that Tillerson “did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason [for his firing].” Anonymous sources told NBC that Chief of Staff John Kelly called Tillerson on Friday to tell him that Trump was going to ask him to “step aside,” but did not specify when that would happen. According to NBC, Tillerson found out about his firing from Trump’s tweet on Tuesday:

The White House then promptly fired Goldstein, Tillerson’s aide, hours later. According to the Associated Press, two anonymous U.S. officials said he was fired “after he contradicted the official account of the secretary of state’s dismissal by President Donald Trump.”

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported that there are likely to be more shakeups this week.

Also this morning, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that John McEntee, Trump’s personal assistant, was fired over an “unspecified security issue.” CNN then reported that McEntee was being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security “for serious financial crimes” unrelated to the president. Trump’s campaign has already announced that McEntee will join the re-election campaign as a senior adviser.