Tag: White House

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Has Any White House Seen This Much Turmoil In First Six Months?

The average White House Chief of Staff lasts 1.5-2 years.

Reince Priebus lasted 189 days – the shortest in history.

Here’s a short list of folks who’ve already departed the Trump administration:

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer

White House Communications Director Mike Dubke

National Security Director Michael Flynn

FBI Director James Comey

and many more…

In only six months.

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White House Shake-Up: Chief Of Staff Reince Priebus Resigns

From this point on, you should take stock in the rumors you hear coming out of the White House.

We heard two months ago that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was close to being fired.

Gone.

Just a week later, following the rumors we’ve all seen, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has resigned.

The new Chief of Staff will be current Homeland Security Secretary, General John F. Kelly.

“I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American…and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration.”

Note the use of the words “true star.” Trump just got off Air Force One where he referred to Reince as a “good man;” that was followed by his called Kelly “a great, great man.”

Priebus had developed a relationship with Trump during the presidential campaign having served as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

When Trump won, which I honestly believe surprised Trump, even he was aware he knew nothing of Washington protocol and procedures.

I think Trump turned to the most “inside” political person he knew: Priebus.

But over time, we’ve seen Trump only admires folks who utilize the same approach as Trump. And that’s not Priebus.

As we saw in Anthony Scaramucci’s expletive-laden rant to New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza yesterday, Scaramucci’s “street approach” is much more to Trump’s liking.

One more thing – Back in 2012, Donald Trump criticized President Obama for having 3 Chiefs of Staff over 3 years. Trump is on his second in only six months:

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WH Comm Director Scaramucci Threatens To “Fire Everybody” To Stop Leaks

Anthony Scaramucci

The first head has rolled in the White House press office as assistant press secretary Michael Short has resigned in advance of being fired by White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.

From Politico:

Short’s ouster is Scaramucci’s first warning shot to White House aides who have been perceived as disloyal to the president. In an echo of Trump’s not-so-subtle warning to Jeff Sessions about his status as attorney general, Scaramucci’s vow to “fire everybody” is a warning to staffers perceived as leakers.

“I’m going to fire everybody, that’s how I’m going to do it,” Scaramucci said to reporters outside of the White House on Tuesday. “You’re either going to stop leaking or you’re going to be fired.”

He claimed to have the full authority of the president to clean out the communications shop and put his own stamp on the team. A source close to Scaramucci said that he’s planning to bring in people from the corporate communications world in addition to conservative broadcast stars.

Short was apparently not well-liked by his colleagues in the White House having quit Team Trump during the campaign but was hired for White House duty by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Scaramucci told reporters it “really upsets me as a human being and as a Roman Catholic” that Short found out about his departure through the media.

He added he’s prepared to reduce the communications office to just himself and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if necessary.

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Sean Spicer Resigns As White House Press Secretary

Sean Spicer

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has resigned from his position in the Trump administration over the hiring of New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Trump offered Mr. Scaramucci the job at 10 a.m. The president requested that Mr. Spicer stay on, but Mr. Spicer told Mr. Trump that he believed the appointment was a major mistake, according to person with direct knowledge of the exchange.

Mr. Trump made the appointment over the objection of Mr. Priebus, who thought Mr. Scaramucci lacked the requisite organizational or political experience. But the president believed Mr. Scaramucci, a ferocious defender of Mr. Trump’s on cable television, was best equipped to play the same role in-house, and he offered him a role with far-reaching powers independent of Mr. Priebus’s.

Mr. Spicer flatly rejected the president’s offer of a position subordinate to Mr. Scaramucci, according to two administration officials familiar with the exchange.

The appointment of Mr. Scaramucci, a favorite of Mr. Trump’s earliest campaign supporters, was backed by the president’s daughter Ivanka, his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the officials said.

Also from The Daily Beast:

Spicer was not the only one opposed to Scaramucci’s hiring. His deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was as well. So, too, was chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, who vocally opposed Trump’s decision, two senior Trump administration officials told The Daily Beast.

According to three senior officials with knowledge of the situation, they and other top aides worried that the Scaramucci hiring would perpetuate the notion of “amateur hour” in the West Wing. White House officials who opposed Scaramucci’s planned rise in Trump’s ranks have referred to the incoming new addition as a “joke” and as a Trump-world “hanger-on” who isn’t qualified for the job and is unprepared to handle the near-constant communications crisis dogging President Trump, senior White House aides noted.

June 23 was the last time Spicer handled an on-camera daily briefing.

CBS News’ Major Garrett reports that Spicer’s exit raises questions about the security of Priebus’ job.

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White House Press Corp Slaps Back After WH Spokesperson Calls Reporter “Outrageous”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

After White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused the media of nitpicking small missteps by the White House without holding themselves to the same standard, The Sentinel‘s Brian Karem could no longer hold in what many in the press corp have been thinking.

“You are inflaming everyone right here right now with those words. This administration has done that as well….Any one of us are replaceable, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us. You have been elected to serve for four years at least, there is no option other than that,” said Karem.

“We are here to ask you questions, you are here to provide answers. And what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the president is right and everybody else is just fake media.’ Everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”

I personally find Sanders the definition of deplorable. Look at her face above. So very condescending.

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Trump White House Is First In 20 Years To Not Hold A Ramadan Event

For the first time since 1996, the White House has not held a celebration to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended at sunset on Saturday.

Via ThinkProgress:

President Donald Trump did issue official statements for Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, a festival that marks the end of the month-long daytime fast. Even those statements, however, lingered on terrorists and terrorism that many felt held all Muslims responsible for the actions of a few.

“I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh: America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it,” the Ramadan statement read, in part. “During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace.”

The Eid statement, while brief, was more conciliatory, commemorating a holiday with Muslims “carry on the tradition of helping neighbors and breaking bread with people from all walks of life.”

Unlike other recent administrations, however, the White House did not hold a dinner or reception to mark either holiday — despite Trump telling ABC News last year that he’d be fine with continuing the Ramadan dinner tradition.

The Trump White House also took a pass on holding a White House seder during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

But he has played golf 30 times since taking office.

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CNN’s Jim Acosta: White House Spokesman Sean Spicer Is “Kind Of Useless”

CNN’s Jim Acosta is pretty much DONE with the lack of communication coming out of the White House these days.

Today saw the White House daily press briefing devolve into an off-the-air, no cameras, no audio recording “gaggle” where Spicer basically offered no answers to questions asked by the White House press corp.

“The White House press secretary is getting to a point, Brooke, where he’s just kind of useless,” Acosta told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. “You know, if he can’t come out and answer the questions and they’re not going to do this on camera or audio…why are we having these briefings or gaggles in the first place?”

According to Politico, Spicer is pushing to move into a new position that would oversee communications for the entire White House, advocating for a new press secretary to take his place. Fox News personality Laura Ingraham has apparently met with the powers that be in the Trump administration about the position.

The president hasn’t held a true press conference since February.

Watch Acosta’s justified frustrations below.

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Golden State Warriors Vote Unanimously To Skip White House Visit

President Obama with Golden State Warriors at White House in 2015

Via The Independent:

The 2017 NBA Champions Golden State Warriors unanimously decided as a team not to meet Donald Trump in the White House, as is custom for winning teams. The Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-120 to seal the hard-fought series 4-1.

It is the second championship for the California team in three years, and the third consecutive NBA finals series between the two teams. The Warriors attended the White House ceremony in their honour when they won the championship in 2015 while former President Barack Obama was in office. The Cavaliers did the same last year.

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White House Omits Only Gay Spouse In Photo Caption

Click image to enlarge

The White House posted a photo taken during this week’s NATO summit of the spouses of the attending world leaders.

The LGBT community was quick to hail the inclusion of the First Gentleman of Luxembourg, Gauthier Destenay, who married the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, two years ago.

And yet, for some unknown reason, Mr. Destenay was the only spouse to be omitted in the caption by the White House.

There are ten people in the photo, only nine included in the caption.

Oh, but they did list Melania twice, so, yeah…

Now, can you think of a reason that could explain why he would the only one excluded?

Remember, Donald Trump told the LGBTQ community during the campaign that he would be “much better for the gays” than Hillary.

#ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm

(h/t The Daily Beast)