- Ginni Thomas gave Trump lists of people she wanted hired or fired, the Daily Beast reported.
- One former official called her lists "insane," "unworkable," and "dripping with paranoia."
- Lists of those she wanted fired were "frequently based on pure conjecture, rumor, or score-settling."
A former Trump White House official told the Daily Beast that the lists of people Ginni Thomas believed President Donald Trump should hire or fire were "insane," "unworkable," and "dripping with paranoia."
Years before aggressively lobbying Trump's last White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to stage a coup and overturn the 2020 election, Thomas was known to drop by the Oval Office for periodic visits during which she expertly leveraged Trump's desire for loyalty and his disdain for the "Deep State."
Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, would come prepared with lists of specific people she wanted Trump to hire or fire, former administration officials told the Beast and Politico, creating headaches for White House staff who had to deal with the aftermath.
"These fucking lists were so insane and unworkable," one former Trump White House official who fielded Thomas' suggestions told the Beast. "A lot of them were dripping with paranoia and read like they were written by a disturbed person."
The lists of people Thomas thought Trump should fire were "frequently based on pure conjecture, rumor, or score-settling," the Beast reported. Thomas' visits would whip Trump into a frenzy over people who might be disloyal or "Never Trumpers" — and staffers had to talk Trump down when he demanded that specific people be fired.
"Several of these Trump administration hands would slow-walk these Thomas-inspired firing directives, and wait until Trump invariably forgot about it, cooled off, and moved on to other fixations and gripes," the Beast reported.
Another former Trump White House official told the Beast that "when Ginni Thomas showed up, you knew your day was wrecked."
And the lists of people Thomas thought should be hired, the Beast said, were frequently "filled with infamous bigots and conspiracy theorists, woefully under-qualified names, and obvious close friends."
The people Thomas suggested for Trump administration gigs included conservative media personality Dan Bongino, pro-Trump sheriff David Clarke, and notorious conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, sources told the Beast. Gaffney was also reportedly present at an infamous 2019 meeting at the White House, convened by Thomas, during which attendees loudly prayed and railed against transgender Americans in graphic terms.
The White House Presidential Personnel Office got the unenviable task of vetting the people on Thomas' lists. PPO staff, the Beast reported, would mark up Thomas' lists with reasons why her recommended hires didn't make the cut for reasons ranging from background check problems to checkered pasts.
And in one instance, the Beast reported, PPO flagged that one suggested candidate was a "suspected foreign-intelligence asset."
Thomas is currently under scrutiny for conspiracy theory-laden text messages she exchanged with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows strategizing ways to overturn the 2020 election. The messages were obtained by the Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, which reportedly hopes to interview Thomas, and were first revealed by the Washington Post and CBS News.
None of the text messages directly mentioned her husband, but a growing number of Democrats in Congress are calling for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from January 6-related cases or even resign from the court.
Thomas did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.