Zippyjuan
03-08-2019, 06:42 PM
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/08/bill-shine-resigns-will-join-trump-campaign-1213083
Why Trump soured on Fox News veteran Bill Shine
Trump has now burned through five communications directors, raising the question of whether he really even wants one.
Bill Shine is the fifth person to learn that it’s not easy to serve as communications director to a president who doesn’t think he needs one.
Trump on Friday accepted the resignation of Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job, severing his most visible link to the conservative network — but likely not changing his relationship with the Trump-friendly outlet.
Shine will join the president’s reelection campaign as a “senior adviser” — a role that will allow him to spend “more time with my family,” he said in a statement Friday, suggesting he will take on something less than a senior leadership role in the campaign.
His sudden departure came as a surprise to several White House aides as well as to a number of officials working on the president’s campaign, several of whom learned he would join the team on Thursday. The Trump campaign has spent the past month building out a communications team and it was not immediately clear what Shine’s portfolio as an adviser to the campaign would comprise, according to two people close to the campaign.
Shine, 55, is a protégé of Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News. He spent decades as a senior executive at the network before joining the White House in July, just two months after he was pushed out of Fox, accused of helping Ailes cover up the sexual harassment and misconduct that had forced his own ouster.
Trump has complained to allies that Shine, though never accused of sexual harassment himself, was named in several lawsuits related to his time at Fox, according to a person who spoke directly with the president about the subject.
While Shine embodied Trump’s cozy relationship with Fox News, his departure is unlikely to change it. Fox employs a raft of pro-Trump hosts with whom the president chats on a regular basis, including the network’s marquee host, Sean Hannity.
It was not immediately clear whether the president urged Shine to resign, but Trump allies say the president never developed a strong rapport with him.
Shifting media coverage of Trump amid the relentless scandals engulfing his administration would be a mighty challenge for anyone. But Trump had privately complained that he hoped for a more noticeable improvement of his public image than Shine has been able to deliver.
Shine became the fifth person to serve as Trump’s communications director when he was named to the job last July. As has been the case with his predecessors, Shine faced the challenge of overseeing messaging for a president who considers himself a media savant and his own best spokesman. Shine departs during a particularly rough patch for a president who is battling multiple scandals, investigating Democrats and rebellious Republicans.
“Ultimately the communications operation in this White House is going to be led by the president, and that's been clear since the campaign,” said Jason Miller, a 2016 Trump campaign adviser who briefly served as communications director for Trump’s presidential transition.
Miller suggested that Trump won’t be in a hurry to install a direct replacement for Shine.
More at link.
Why Trump soured on Fox News veteran Bill Shine
Trump has now burned through five communications directors, raising the question of whether he really even wants one.
Bill Shine is the fifth person to learn that it’s not easy to serve as communications director to a president who doesn’t think he needs one.
Trump on Friday accepted the resignation of Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job, severing his most visible link to the conservative network — but likely not changing his relationship with the Trump-friendly outlet.
Shine will join the president’s reelection campaign as a “senior adviser” — a role that will allow him to spend “more time with my family,” he said in a statement Friday, suggesting he will take on something less than a senior leadership role in the campaign.
His sudden departure came as a surprise to several White House aides as well as to a number of officials working on the president’s campaign, several of whom learned he would join the team on Thursday. The Trump campaign has spent the past month building out a communications team and it was not immediately clear what Shine’s portfolio as an adviser to the campaign would comprise, according to two people close to the campaign.
Shine, 55, is a protégé of Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News. He spent decades as a senior executive at the network before joining the White House in July, just two months after he was pushed out of Fox, accused of helping Ailes cover up the sexual harassment and misconduct that had forced his own ouster.
Trump has complained to allies that Shine, though never accused of sexual harassment himself, was named in several lawsuits related to his time at Fox, according to a person who spoke directly with the president about the subject.
While Shine embodied Trump’s cozy relationship with Fox News, his departure is unlikely to change it. Fox employs a raft of pro-Trump hosts with whom the president chats on a regular basis, including the network’s marquee host, Sean Hannity.
It was not immediately clear whether the president urged Shine to resign, but Trump allies say the president never developed a strong rapport with him.
Shifting media coverage of Trump amid the relentless scandals engulfing his administration would be a mighty challenge for anyone. But Trump had privately complained that he hoped for a more noticeable improvement of his public image than Shine has been able to deliver.
Shine became the fifth person to serve as Trump’s communications director when he was named to the job last July. As has been the case with his predecessors, Shine faced the challenge of overseeing messaging for a president who considers himself a media savant and his own best spokesman. Shine departs during a particularly rough patch for a president who is battling multiple scandals, investigating Democrats and rebellious Republicans.
“Ultimately the communications operation in this White House is going to be led by the president, and that's been clear since the campaign,” said Jason Miller, a 2016 Trump campaign adviser who briefly served as communications director for Trump’s presidential transition.
Miller suggested that Trump won’t be in a hurry to install a direct replacement for Shine.
More at link.