Trump floats firing top political advisers after report they helped a pro-Russian government

By Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes, Dana Bash, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday distanced himself from two of his top political advisers — less than 30 days before the midterm elections — writing that if their outside work presents a conflict, “I will terminate them, immediately!”

Trump’s warning came after The New York Times published a report detailing how James Blair, one of the president’s former deputy chiefs of staff who now leads his outside political operation, and Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager, traveled to the Balkans last week for paid work on behalf of a pro-Russian government.

Trump was unaware that the two men had traveled to the Balkans – or that the pro-Russian government was among their clientele – until he was briefed on the impending New York Times piece, sources familiar with the situation told CNN. The president then made a series of phone calls Tuesday night asking his allies what their take on the story was, the sources said.

One source said Trump appeared annoyed, and another veteran Republican who is in touch with the president told CNN that Trump was “pissed” by the report – particularly at the revelation that the two advisers had been abroad in the home stretch of the midterm campaign, profiting off their association with him.

“Tone deaf,” the veteran Republican said of the advisers’ conduct.

But another source said Trump was simply seeking a range of opinions on what had been reported.

Trump – who has been actively campaigning for Republicans ahead of November’s midterms – ultimately decided he wanted to respond to the story, two of the sources told CNN. So on Wednesday, one of the sources said, he dictated a Truth Social post to aide Natalie Harp while in the Oval Office, commenting to those in the room that both Blair and LaCivita are outside consultants and are allowed to have other clients. One source said that at that moment, he did not seem irked.

“Chris LaCivita and James Blair are outside consultants. They do not work for me, other than as outside consultants. They most likely have numerous clients, but for that, you would have to ask them,” Trump posted.

“I do not have any idea who else they work for but will, on reflection, ask them and, if there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately!” Trump wrote.

The president continued distancing himself from the two advisers and downplayed any conflict of interest later Wednesday. “They don’t have a conflict because they’re independent people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“I assume they have a lot of clients,” he went on. “So I don’t know their contract. If I thought they had a conflict … I would terminate.”

He also noted that neither currently works in the White House.

“Well they’re allowed to do that,” Trump told CNN. “They have a lot of clients and it’s okay. I’m a client over there, they have a consulting firm I guess, separately, as all people in Washington do. That’s pretty common.”

According to the Times, Blair and LaCivita traveled to Republika Srpska, a territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ahead of elections there on Sunday. The trip came as polls show Republicans are facing severe electoral challenges in the United States.

Blair and LaCivita “were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each through a Washington-based law firm that was retained by Republika Srpska’s government to provide counsel on voting issues,” the Times reported.

They said the work was for the government and not the nationalist party that controls it, though they are essentially one and the same.

Blair currently leads Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., and has been tasked with heading up the president’s midterm elections strategy. LaCivita is a senior adviser at MAGA Inc.

The group has been spending tens of millions of dollars trying to bolster Republican candidates ahead of the midterms, including some in reliably red territory who now appear vulnerable.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.