Enough

In July 2020, the Trump administration began negotiations with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to pass a second COVID-19 relief bill before the 2020 election. The negotiations renewed Hutchinson’s concerns about how Meadows treated OLA staff since he left them out completely in favor of making Hutchinson the White House “point person” for the negotiations, a highly unusual choice. Hutchinson felt proud to play a role but was also overwhelmed and aware that she was not very qualified to support Meadows in the discussions. While the negotiations were largely professional and respectful, they eventually “ground to a halt” (125). However, Hutchinson became too busy working on Trump’s reelection campaign to reflect on the failed negotiations.

At this time, Hutchinson learned that Trump decided to commute Roger Stone’s sentence, another decision she disagreed with. Stone participated in election interference during the 2016 presidential election and received seven felony charges for witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and lying to Congress. That summer, she became a more “familiar presence” to President Trump. In one interaction, he invited another staffer to give Hutchinson her hair stylist’s information and told Hutchinson to dye her hair blonder. When she did so, he said he “loved it.” While Hutchinson told him she liked her new style, she privately didn’t and returned to being a brunette months later. 

While on the campaign trail with President Trump, Meadows praised Hutchinson for being “loyal” to him, a compliment that pleased Hutchinson. She had felt a growing loyalty to both him and Trump as individuals rather than their offices, which was what she had “initially pledged” (127). Meadows asked if Hutchinson would take a bullet for the president. Surprised, Hutchinson tried to deflect the question, but it nagged at her mind. As the campaign went on, Hutchinson began to doubt Trump would win and was worried by Meadows’s increasingly distrustful behavior such as recording phone calls with Speaker Pelosi.

As he continued campaigning, arriving at airports and rallies to strong crowds was very important to Trump. Hurricane Laura interrupted his campaign schedule, and Trump visited disaster sites with other representatives. In Orange, Texas, Ted Cruz violated the president’s wishes by greeting him at the airport tarmac rather than waiting to join him at a roundtable event. Hutchinson confronted him about this and told him to leave. When he refused, Hutchinson complained to Meadows, who in turn confronted Cruz. Cruz accused Hutchinson of being a “tattletale,” and she tried to assert her authority over him again.

Hutchinson recalls seeing a different side of President Trump when The Atlantic ran a story that claimed he made derogatory comments about dead American soldiers and did not want to visit a World War l cemetery because the wind might ruin his hair. Hutchinson believed Trump when he said it was untrue and was surprised by how concerned he was. She posits that he hides this side of himself because he is scared of “appearing weak.”

Tensions remained high between OLA and Mark Meadows. Amy Swonger continued to resent Meadows’s approach and Hutchinson’s level of authority. Meadows asked Hutchinson to accompany the president to Las Vegas for a three-day trip without him. He was secretive about his reasons for staying in Washington, and Hutchinson was unsure of representing Meadows by herself but agreed nonetheless. She invited Kevin McCarthy to meet them there since she wanted to have “help to manage Trump just in case,” but he declined since he needed to fundraise elsewhere (139). She continued to maintain a close friendship with McCarthy, who was her mother’s favorite politician, and was happy when he sent her mother a happy birthday message.

Hutchinson recalls Trump’s first presidential debate with Joe Biden, at which Trump and his family members violated their campaigns’ agreement to test for COVID and wear masks at the event. Later, Trump showed COVID symptoms, and one of his aides tested positive. Hutchinson was very concerned about Trump and all the people he may have infected, but Meadows denied that the president was sick. She later learned by reading Meadows’s book that Trump had tested positive for COVID on September 26, three days before the debate, and both men chose to ignore the test results. 

Now sick with COVID, Trump’s health worsened, and he reluctantly agreed to allow his staff to announce that he was sick. Meadows and others eventually persuaded the president to go to the hospital when “his condition became so dire that even he realized his decision could be a matter of life or death” (144). As Trump recovered, he focused on projecting an image of strength to the public; he waved to his supporters from his SUV driving around the hospital. Soon, President Trump ignored his doctors’ advice and left the hospital. Hutchinson began to realize how important it was to Trump to appear strong and worried that he was potentially infecting more people to “project an artificial image of strength and wellness” (145).

After he left the hospital, Trump prioritized getting Amy Coney Barrett confirmed as a new Supreme Court justice after Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death. He also continued attending rallies and was obsessed with crowd sizes. Hutchinson attributes Meadows’s “volatile” moods during this time to the fact that the president “continuously berated him about rally crowd sizes” (147). However, Trump struggled with informal interactions with his supporters and listening to them with interest. Hutchinson had to navigate numerous rally-related concerns, all while feeling that her job description was constantly changing without notice. She became more wary of Meadows’s “sporadic outbursts” about campaign failures and tried to avoid traveling in close quarters with him.

When a rally was held in Hutchinson’s hometown, she felt distressed about seeing her parents in the crowd at the airport since she was not on speaking terms with her father. She tried to ignore the positive messages he sent her afterward since it was more “confusing” than when he was simply “cruel.” Seeing her hometown from the perspective of a campaigner made her feel “detached” and somewhat disillusioned between the cultural chasm that now existed between her and the people who attended Trump’s rallies. While she grew up in a blue-collar family, she did not feel an “authentic connection” to the rally attendees, feeling as though she belonged with the Trump and Pence families instead. Hutchinson reflects on how different these people are from Trump and the strange irony that they were “mesmerized and emboldened” by him and were, therefore, unbothered that “his adult children wore outfits worth more than their yearly income” (167). Seeing a blue-collar girl and her father at a rally made Hutchinson ashamed of her privileged and “inauthentic” lifestyle. 

At one of the last rallies before the election, there was a massive turnout of 30,000 people in Rome, Georgia. While relieved at the size of the crowd, Hutchinson was concerned that Meadows had agreed to meet Tony Bobulisnki, a former business associate of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Hutchinson admits she knew little about Bobulinski but that the meeting felt dangerous and “secretive,” and she urged Meadows to not go out of concern for his safety. Observing their interaction from a distance, Hutchinson saw Meadows hand Bobulinski a folded piece of paper. After the meeting, Meadows thanked Hutchinson for her loyalty with a forced smile. However, she felt distrustful about his and the president’s “suspicious activity.”

By the 2020 election, Hutchinson and Meadows both contracted COVID and were quarantined for 10 days. Hutchinson felt “discombobulated, disconnected” from reality and the White House and missed election night due to her illness. She explains that shortly after the election, Trump’s lawyers filed 90 lawsuits meant to ensure that Trump was reelected President. Hutchinson was embarrassed by lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s strange press conferences and the accusations of voter fraud, which she knew were unsubstantiated. She believed that the president was entitled to a recount but was worried about his lawyer’s rhetoric, although she did not yet blame President Trump for these developments.

Hutchinson knew that they had lost the election, and as the administration lost their lawsuits, she began to consider her job options. Meadows urged her to consider working for Trump personally when he left the White House, an offer Hutchinson promised to consider seriously since she felt she was “strong-willed” and “sane,” the kind of person he needed. Meanwhile, Trump continued to ignore COVID safety protocols in the White House; when he met with a group of legislators, he told his team to ignore their positive COVID tests and take off their masks while they met together.

In early December 2020, Attorney General William Barr announced that there was not enough evidence of voter fraud to suggest that Donald Trump won the election. Hutchinson recalls Trump summoning Meadows for a meeting; when she entered the room shortly afterward, she saw a broken plate and ketchup on the walls. While she helped the valet clean up, he explained that the president was furious about the attorney general’s statement, implying that Trump threw the food. Hutchinson hoped that Attorney General Barr would not be fired, but a week later, President Trump announced that Barr had resigned, and Jeff Rosen would take the position.

Keeping their activities discreet to avoid Trump’s anger, Meadows and Hutchinson took some meetings about Trump’s transition out of the White House, such as meeting with archivists about Trump’s presidential library and documents. Hutchinson asked Meadows what he believed Trump should do, and he vaguely implied that he knew Trump lost the election and would leave the White House. Hutchinson remained deeply uncomfortable with the number of Republicans who believed that Trump won the election. At the White House holiday party, Hutchinson spoke with John Ratcliffe, the director of National Intelligence, who told her that Trump vacillated between acknowledging that he lost the election and insisting that he won it. Ratcliffe expressed his concern that Meadows was placating Trump and giving him bad advice.

Soon after, the Supreme Court declined to hear the president’s last election-related case. Hutchinson was relieved and hoped that Trump and her colleagues would accept it as the end of their administration. However, she overheard the president ranting about the decision to Meadows, saying, “I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing” (181). Meadows insisted they could still find a way to overturn the election results.

Meadows ordered most workers to take time off for the holidays, but Hutchinson and Trump’s lawyers continued working. Every morning, Meadows lit a fire in his office fireplace, and Hutchinson recalls seeing him feed papers into the fire. She recalls that “his actions raised alarms” since it is a violation of the Presidential Records Act for staff to destroy any government documents (182).

One evening, Meadows left work early but Hutchinson stayed behind. She noticed that General Michael Flynn, who had lied to the FBI about meeting Russian officials when he was a national security advisor, was meeting with the president. She then saw four of Trump’s lawyers rush down the hallway into the Oval Office. Hutchinson heard screaming coming from the office and called Meadows but failed to reach him. While texting a colleague, Hutchinson learned that he overheard the president discussing martial law and realized that was what the group was likely fighting about. She could not get Meadows to return to the office. After the meeting ended, Hutchinson noticed a Trump tweet that claimed he won the election and that there would be a “wild” protest in DC on January 6.

The next day, Meadows was preparing for a meeting with Devin Nunes, a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence member, when Nunes and Hutchinson found him tending to a large fire in his office. This prompted Nunes to privately ask Hutchinson how often Meadows burnt documents. Meadows later informed Hutchinson that the HPSCI would “sort through” classified documents before the end of the Trump administration. This shocked Hutchinson, who knew that this was a violation of protocol. She realized that she and Meadows needed to “restore order” to the White House before things “spiral[ed] out of control” (188).

On December 21, Rudy Giuliani held a meeting with the vice president and several members of Congress about the vice president’s “ceremonial role of certifying the election results on January 6” (189). Hutchinson notes that after this meeting, several Congressional members asked for “preemptive pardons” in case Biden ascended to the presidency and prosecuted them. Hutchinson implies that while these members said they were “saving democracy,” they knew they were planning to overturn a valid election. She hoped that when Trump returned from his Christmas vacation, he would accept the election results and move on. 

In early January 2021, Meadows continued to try to overturn the election results, telling Hutchinson that he felt it was a part of his job as chief of staff. Nevertheless, Trump became increasingly upset with Meadows, accusing him of not trying hard enough. Meadows found it difficult to broach the subject of leaving the White House with the president.

The January 6 “rally” was set to take place at Ellipse, a park near the White House. Meadows asked the Secret Service and Hutchinson to plan to take Trump to the Capitol afterward. Hutchinson felt that a presidential motorcade to the Capitol would be unsafe and disagreed with the potential plan. Meanwhile, Hutchinson’s mother texted her, asking her to not go to work on January 6 because the news was reporting that crowds would be “large” and “militant.” Hutchinson assured her mother that she would be fine but admits that her mother’s concerns made her worry.

At another meeting, Rudy Giuliani expressed excitement that Trump planned to go to the Capitol on January 6, where he would look “powerful.” Meadows shared with Hutchinson that events could become “real, real bad” without revealing any more (196). Tony Ornato, the White House deputy chief of staff, informed Meadows that the Secret Service had learned about potential violence at the rally, but Meadows appeared unconcerned and ignorant about the various militant groups interested in the rally, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Boogaloo Bois.

With the help of George Pappas, an HSPCI aide, Meadows violated protocol regarding classified material. Pappas even invited Hutchinson to look at some of the documents and later handed her a binder of documents and instructed her to keep it in her desk. She put it in the office vault instead. Meadows also participated in a call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the president “pressed Raffensperger to ‘find’ the nearly twelve thousand votes that would have put him ahead of Biden” (195). Hutchinson told Meadows that the call was “crazy,” and Trump lawyer Pat Cipillone agreed. An audio recording of the call was later leaked to the media.

Hutchinson recalls that by this time, Meadows had less influence on Trump and he was mainly concerned with placating the president. He insisted that even if they did not “pull it off” on January 6, he had another plan in place to keep Trump in office (199). Hutchinson continued to privately disagree with assertions but caved to pressure, behaving as if Trump would serve another term.

On the morning of January 6, 2021, Hutchinson picked up Liz Horning, the aide to Trump lawyer Pat Cipollone, on their way to the rally. Driving through the city, Hutchinson and Horning showed their security badges to police to get through their checkpoints. Hutchinson was stunned by the number of Trump supporters descending on the city, likening them to “soldiers marching to battle” (203). Hutchinson and Horning agreed that the crowds were indeed Trump supporters and not Antifa (antifascist) as some of their colleagues claimed. Horning urged Hutchinson not to attend the rally, but Hutchinson did not take her advice.

Arriving at the office, Ornato informed Hutchinson of problems already underway, including people armed with knives, bear spray, and sharpened flag poles. Hearing this, Hutchinson hoped the president would change his mind about attending. One of his lawyers told her to stop Trump from going to the Capitol after the rally, asking her to tell Meadows that there would be “grave legal consequences” if this were to happen (207). Hutchinson promised she would try.

At Ellipse Park, President Trump “roar[ed]” his demands that all of his supporters should be let into the park and that the magnetometers should be put away. Hutchinson overheard Meadows tell the president that he would find a way to do an “off-the-record” visit to the Capitol; she confronted him and told him that they could not go, but Meadows ignored her. Rudy Giuliani insisted that Trump’s team would overturn the election, grabbed her into a side hug, and put his hand under her skirt, touching her thigh. Hutchinson freed herself and watched as the enthusiastic crowd screamed for Trump, feeling a sense of “dread” about how events could unfold (210).

When a Secret Service agent informed Hutchinson that they needed Meadows to sign off on taking Trump to the Capitol, Hutchinson insisted to him—and later to Meadows—that this could not happen. She was relieved when the motorcade turned toward the White House. However, upon their return, Ornato told her that Trump was furious at being kept from the Capitol and tried to grab his car’s steering wheel and his driver’s neck. Hutchinson began referring to the crowd as “rioters” and expressed her concern to Meadows that they could breach the Capitol. Finding him “flat” and “lifeless,” Hutchinson told Meadows to call Jim Jordan, a Republican Congressman from Ohio.

Amid the chaos, Trump tweeted accusing Vice President Mike Pence of not having the “courage” to reject “fraudulent” election results. Hutchinson realized the gravity of the situation as rioters called for Pence to be hanged. Hutchinson learned that someone was shot in the Capitol and was terrified that this was the beginning of a coup. She and the staff went to the West Wing for their security. Hutchinson recalls that the “general consensus” was that Trump had to tell the protestors to leave. He made a two-minute video statement telling them to go home.

As Hutchinson drove home that evening, she thought that the city looked like a “war zone” with metal fencing, military vans, and National Guardsmen. Exhausted and disillusioned, she drove to Virginia and had dinner with Meadows’s security detail. Hutchinson was upset by the images she saw of employees, members of Congress, and journalists sheltering in the Capitol, afraid for their lives. Her mother and stepfather called and begged her not to move to Florida to continue working for Trump. Hutchinson insisted that she had to go since she already committed and that Trump needed good advisors. While her mother begged her to reconsider, Hutchinson hung up and broke down crying.