President Donald Trump was so fixated on John Bolton's mustache that he declined to offer him the job of secretary of state before he was sworn in more than two years ago, according to a new report.
George Conway, the husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, talked to The Washington Post and had several critical things to say about her boss.
Conway, a vocal Trump critic on Twitter, recalled a trip to a costume party he took with his wife, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and Trump after the 2016 election but before Trump took office. The group was riding in a black SUV and Conway said Trump revealed to him that Bolton's facial hair was the reason he didn't pick him to run the State Department.
"He didn't like the mustache," Conway said. "He just went on and on about the mustache."
Bolton is now Trump's national security adviser, a job he's held since April 2018.
Conway also told the Post that Trump offered him a job at the Department of Justice — which Trump insists never happened — but he turned it down because of Trump's criticisms of the DOJ's leadership.
"I'm thinking to myself, this guy is going to be at war with the Justice Department for the next two years. I'm not doing this," said Conway, referring to his thought process after he heard the DOJ appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
A month later, Trump allegedly told Conway he was smart not to take the job because he would have worked under Jeff Sessions, the attorney general at the time who was fired last November.
"He said to me, I remember it clearly, 'you were smart not to work for that guy. He is so weak,'" said Conway, referring to Trump's feelings about Sessions.
Conway indicated to the Post that he spends so much time tweeting negative thoughts at the president to avoid "screaming" his opinions at his wife.
"It's so maddening to watch," he said. The mendacity, the incompetence, it's just maddening to watch. The tweeting is just the way to get it out of the way, so I can get it off my chest and move on with my life that day. That's basically it. Frankly, it's so I don't end up screaming at her about it."
Trump responded to Conway's comments in the Post article by calling him "a total loser."
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