According to NBC News, there’s some palace intrigue coming out of the East Wing.

In an extraordinary move for a first lady, Melania Trump’s office on Tuesday publicly called for the firing of a senior National Security Council official.

Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s communications director issued a statement around 2:30 p.m. saying the official, Mira Ricardel, should no longer serve as the NSC’s No. 2.

“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.

Meanwhile, over in the West Wing…

John Kelly, mired in conflicts with a widening array of officials from the National Security Council to the office of the first lady, may soon depart the Trump administration, according to seven people familiar with the discussions.

Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, is among those being considered for the job, three of the people said, though President Donald Trump has mused about other possible candidates.

There’s been talk about canning a few other people, including DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who was a protege of Kelly.  All of this is a result of Trump’s temper tantrum after the GOP got their asses kicked in the midterms.  He’ll never admit it — even though he said it over and over, “A vote for a Republican is a vote for me” — but the blame clearly lies on him, and he knows it.  That’s why he’s obsessed with the recount in Florida (and carrying along his toadies, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio) in the torrent of his daily tweetstorms: there has to fraud and deceit because that’s the only way fair elections are won, dammit.

It’s common practice among authoritarians to blame the staff for the screw-ups of the dictator and then huddle in the bunker as the bombs drop around you, cursing the traitors that he entrusted to carry out his impossible policies.  Firing this aide or that cabinet secretary doesn’t get at the real problem: the rot is at the top, and in this case, it’s permed in Aqua-Sheen and susceptible to damage by wind and rain.