WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is moving toward major shuffles of his Cabinet and his West Wing staff, several people familiar with the discussions said Tuesday.
Trump is almost certain to fire Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security who has long been a target of the president's displeasure, three people close to the president said. Trump talked about dismissing Nielsen ahead of his trip to Paris for a World War I commemoration, sources said.
But inside the White House, removing Nielsen is also seen as a way for Trump to push out the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, without directly firing him. Nick Ayers, the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, has long been seen as a potential replacement for Kelly if he leaves.
Another administration official, Mira Ricardel, a foreign policy hard-liner who had been serving as a deputy to the national security adviser, John Bolton, was expected to be dismissed after the first lady, Melania Trump, complained about her to Kelly, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Ricardel, who previously worked at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, had disparaged two members of Melania Trump's staff during the first lady's trip to Africa last month, the person said.
A White House official told The Associated Press that Ricardel wanted to travel to Africa with the first lady but was denied seating on the airplane because there was no room for her and several others who initially expected to make the trip. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss White House personnel matters, said Ricardel then threatened not to send any National Security Council staff members.
Ricardel also is said to have tangled with Defense Secretary James Mattis on issues of policy and Pentagon personnel. And Pentagon officials have said privately that they believe Ricardel had a hand in spreading rumors this year about Mattis falling out of favor with the White House and perhaps departing.
Ricardel's name remained on a list of those attending an official White House event in the afternoon.
But in an unusual statement about West Wing personnel matters, Stephanie Grisham, a spokesman for the first lady, addressed Ricardel's status. "It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House," Grisham said.
As for the chief-of-staff role, Ayers is favored by the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and daughter Ivanka Trump, both of whom serve as West Wing advisers. President Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has told friends that he sees Ayers as "competent."
Ayers did not travel with Pence, as originally was planned, on his official trip to Asia this week, two White House officials said. Another prospective chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who already leads two agencies and who had been seen as campaigning for the West Wing job, has told aides he is no longer interested.
Several people working in the White House who are not among the Trump family members or their allies have expressed concern to the president about putting Ayers in that role and have warned that some staff members might quit because of it.
Trump hates interpersonal confrontation, and he often lets aides he does not like remain in their positions for a long time, meaning changes could still be weeks away, the people close to the president cautioned. Ayers' name has been mentioned as a Kelly successor before, only to disappear as Kelly has remained in his post.
But Nielsen has been a target of Trump's ire for many months, primarily over his administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy and his belief that she was not implementing it effectively.
Trump and Kelly arrived at a plan earlier this year for Kelly to remain in his job through the 2020 election, but the president has privately told allies that he would not bet on his chief of staff staying that long.
The Washington Post first reported that Nielsen may depart soon. A White House spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Kelly has often defended Nielsen to the president and protected her from other Cabinet members when she was under attack from them, sources have said.
Among some of Trump's allies, his views and treatment of Nielsen have been characterized as unfair. The president has derided her previous service in the George W. Bush administration and questioned her loyalty. He also helped ensure that she was the face of the contentious border separation policy that involved taking children from their parents.
Inside the Department of Homeland Security, some employees said they had believed for months that Nielsen was on her way out.
The employees say Nielsen has struggled to explain to the White House the complexities of border security. One employee said Nielsen has pushed back on many measures suggested by immigration hard-liners, though she has forged ahead with efforts to limit immigration using other contentious policies. The most recent effort is a proposal that would deny asylum to anyone who arrived in the country illegally.
The employees believe Nielsen's fate was sealed with the release of the agency's border enforcement data over the past two months.
Last week, Customs and Border Protection released data showing a one-month record 23,121 people traveling in families who either surrendered or were arrested by Border Patrol agents. Families increasingly make up the largest portion of those caught at the border, and most are from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. In September, nearly 16,658 people in families were apprehended at the border, prompting the Trump administration to label the increase in migrants a crisis and a national security threat.
Although the overall number of people apprehended at the border remains at a low mark, the Trump administration has grown increasingly frustrated as the number of families making the trek to the United States has grown.
The deputy secretary job at the agency has remained unfilled since Elaine Duke left in April. The White House has not nominated a replacement.
Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville and Bob Burns of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/14/2018