Madeleine Westerhout, age 28, was Donald Trump’s personal assistant until she drank a bit too much and boasted to “friends” that she had a better relationship with the president than his daughters did. The next day that tidbit hit the news and Maddie found herself out of a job.

Though Trump himself has apparently forgiven the girl, she doesn’t get her very special job back and it’s hard to muster any sympathy for her. She had made it, had the world on a string, the most powerful man alive liked her and all the beautiful people knew. Money, fame, power, perks, she had it all. But apparently, it wasn’t enough. She had to push it. A little chubby herself, she also said Trump didn’t like to take photos with Tiffany because fat. Well, overweight. Tut tut.

What makes people push things too far like that? Hard to say, but one surmises insecurity. It’s related to bullying, but also to the Terrible Twos when one discovers behavioral limits by encountering resistance. In finding the limits, Maddie lost the position in which, she thought, she was better loved than the president’s own girls. That might have been a key, Maddie. Blood runs thick in most people, especially in people named Trump.

Meanwhile, Ivanka and Tiffany retain their positions as the president’s daughters.

It’s wise to keep confidential matters confidential and to resist any urge to talk about the boss’s personal life or, for that matter, to talk about the boss at all. It’s just too easy to stray off into things that can get you in trouble. It’s also wise to just shut up when you don’t have something nice to say. Wisest of all, don’t drink with professional gossips and backstabbers such as progressive reporters.

In the New Testament, Jesus advises his disciples to eschew adjectives when they speak. For years I didn’t understand why. Now I think it's to squelch the human tendency to exaggerate, especially to exaggerate self-importance. If this is so, then it connects to pride, one of the seven deadly sins; and to lying, another deadly sin. Exaggerating or shading the facts, after all, is lying.

And this, one suspects, is the chain of sticky wickets that ensnared young Miss Westerhout.