White House Communications Director Resigns as Shake-Up Begins

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/us/politics/trump-administration-mike-dubke-communications.html?_r=0


White House communications director resigns.

A long-promised shake up of the White House staff began on Tuesday with the resignation of the White House’s communications director, Michael Dubke.

In a note to colleagues, Mr. Dubke said the reasons for his departure are “personal.”

“But it has been my great honor to serve President Trump and his admin. It has also been my distinct pleasure to work side by side, day by day, with the staff of the communications and press depts. This White House is filled with some of the finest and hardest working men and women in the American government,” he wrote in his letter.

Mr. Dubke was on the job only three months. His departure could be the first of many in the media offices of the White House.

[Zippyjuan]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-weighs-options-in-looming-white-house-staff-shakeup/


Trump to weigh options for looming White House staff shakeup

WASHINGTON -- As his administration braces to absorb the impact of a special counsel's investigation into his ties to Russia, President Donald Trump is preparing to consider a range of options to re-focus -- and potentially restructure -- his White House team once he returns home from a whirlwind trip abroad.

As early as this weekend, Mr. Trump will be presented options to create new rapid response messaging teams both inside and outside the White House, aimed solely at responding to the investigation, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News.

One idea under consideration, according to a GOP source close to the White House, is the formation of an outside group to handle all Russia-related inquiries, freeing up the existing communications team inside the White House to focus on moving Mr. Trump's governing agenda forward.

A robust surrogate operation, mostly lacking to date, is likely to be run by the external group as well. With a few exceptions, the White House has so far lacked external defenders appearing on television and in news stories.

Mr. Trump has also been speaking to campaign advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, though its unclear if they will play a formal role in the communications shakeup. Lewandowski was Mr. Trump's first campaign manager, and Bossie served as deputy campaign manager.

CBS News also confirmed one looming shakeup that is bound to eliminate some source of drama among staffers. Leakers of classified information at the White House have been identified and will be fired. Their terminations are currently being processed, sources said.

"You have no idea how paranoid it makes people," a White House official said of the rampant leaking.

Mr. Trump has also retained prominent New York attorney Marc Kasowitz as outside counsel to help him navigate the Russia investigation, sources confirmed to CBS News.

"The inside-outside effort needs to take a page from Clinton's operation when they were battling Monica Lewinsky," the GOP source close to the White House said. "They had an internal mechanism to direct all calls and incoming [questions] to a crisis containment center, in order to use the communications office -- the White House press office -- as offense."

"At the same time, they had a surrogate operation to have their voices heard. That's what needs to happen on the reactive side," the source added.

During Justice Neil Gorsuch's smooth Supreme Court confirmation process, the White House implemented a similar professionalized operation. Outside consultants working on behalf of the White House handled rapid response and strategic communications for Gorsuch, a sharp contrast to some of the chaos emerging from the White House.

Communications decisions could be made as early as this weekend, upon the president's arrival back in Washington, D.C.



The White House is seriously considering abandoning traditional White House press briefings as well.

"Trump does not find value in them anymore," a source close to the White House told CBS News. "While Spicer has high ratings, it's difficult to get the message out to the clutter and it's serving as a device to beat him up."

One consideration being thrown around is the possibility of Mr. Trump himself holding a press conference every two weeks and reducing Spicer's press briefings down to once or twice a week.

The futility of press briefings was on full display earlier this month.

[dannno]

Good riddance, their communications team sucks.

Remember when Trump used to control and dominate the news cycle using twitter?

[CPUd]

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https://twitter.com/th3j35t3r/status/869548894925062144

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https://twitter.com/th3j35t3r/status/869550021905190913

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Fan fiction.

[CPUd]

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https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/869624528250568704

[Swordsmyth]

His staff needs a big shakeup.