Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, carried on this past weekend as planned, despite reports that he had inappropriate conversations with Russia's ambassador before Trump took office. Flynn trekked to Mar-a-Lago, hopped on phone calls with foreign leaders, huddled with senior Trump officials and was in on the presidential daily briefing.
At the same time, Flynn's political future was crashing down around him: Trump's aides and top allies urged the president to get rid of Flynn, after it became clear he discussed sanctions with Russian officials and lied about it to Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials.
By Monday night, Trump had made his first big staff shake-up, causing chaos in a nascent presidency and raising further questions about the president's ability to handle national security matters in the first month of his tenure.
Though questions about Flynn's conversations — and whether he fully communicated the details of those discussions with administration officials — overshadowed Trump's weekend meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, perhaps most damaging to the Trump administration was a report from The Washington Post that Trump officials were informed by the Justice Department of the issues at least several weeks before and had chosen not to act.
Trump's decision on what to do with Flynn was not easy, according to several people who spoke with him about it. The president values loyalty perhaps more than anything, and Flynn had been one of his most staunch surrogates on the campaign trail. The president saw Flynn as a fellow outsider who had a good sense of the national security challenges. "Trump liked the way he talked to him," one adviser said. "He thought Flynn knew what he was doing."
But Trump became increasingly convinced that the question of Flynn's contact with Russia wasn't going away. His top aides and advisers distrusted Flynn, according to senior White House officials and others who spoke with Trump, and Trump was concerned that the intelligence and national security community would always oppose Flynn, sources said.
"I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador," Flynn said in a resignation letter. "I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology."
Pence was unhappy with Flynn for not telling him the truth and told Trump about his displeasure, a White House official said, but said he would accept whatever decision the president made.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, who is close with Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, was aware of the uncertainty about Flynn's future and the concerns in Trump's orbit but, hoping the storm could pass, tried to telegraph on TV that the adviser wasn't in trouble, one person familiar with her thinking said.
"Gen. Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president," Conway said earlier Monday.
Her appearance created waves in Trump's orbit, and Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, who has expressed displeasure about Conway to associates, immediately put out a statement that seemed to contradict her.
"The president is evaluating the situation," Spicer said soon after Conway's remarks.
One person who frequently speaks to Trump said the president was reluctant to ditch Flynn because he doesn't "like to fire people who are loyal." Even Monday evening, Trump was still pondering the decision, the person said.
"He has this reputation of being a 'you're fired' kind of guy, but he really didn't want to have that conversation," the person said.
Heading the agency in Flynn's absence will be Keith Kellogg, Flynn's chief of staff, but he is not guaranteed the job permanently, senior officials said.
Officials are searching for a permanent head and meeting with officials, including retired Gen. David Petraeus. Also in the hunt to replace Flynn, according to a senior administration official, is Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who is the front-runner, a senior White House official said.
A number of White House and national security officials are involved in the search, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Department of Homeland Security John Kelly, chief of staff Reince Priebus, Bannon, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior official said.
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who has known Kellogg for decades, said early Tuesday that he is a "good man" who was among the earliest Trump loyalists.
But he doubted he will be a permanent replacement for Flynn.
"He won't be the selection," McCaffrey predicted, saying Flynn's permanent replacement has to be "someone with the chops needed to deal with" Bannon and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller.
Flynn's decision to resign came after it became clear to him that he had lost the president's trust, officials said. Flynn was increasingly isolated from Trump's inner circle and became convinced by Monday afternoon that he had little support, after making a number of calls to Trump confidants and aides, according to a White House official.
Flynn was also rattled by a number of news media reports that said he was on the outs, according to a high-ranking official. He "knew things weren't heading in the right direction for him and that Trump might be changing his position."
Flynn, long a controversial figure in the national security establishment, was widely disliked by many of Trump's aides more aligned with the establishment wing of the party, according to several aides.
Though he was particularly close to Bannon, the president's top strategist and a philosophical and strategic adviser with a vast sway on the presidency, Bannon by the weekend had told Flynn to "do the right thing" and resign, according to a senior White House official.
Trump spent the weekend in difficult conversations about Flynn and talked with a number of top aides on Monday, many of whom told the president to get rid of Flynn, according to several people who spoke with him.
Yet Flynn spent the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and was in the front row Monday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to the White House.
Two people close to Trump said that many in Trump's world had turned on Flynn and used the latest story to try and drive him out. Others in Trump's immediate circle wondered "why Trump kept defending him."
Flynn seemed to take the departure in stride. The last four words of his resignation letter posted Monday night were Trump's presidential slogan: "Make America Great Again."
Bryan Bender contributed to this reporti.