President Trump’s allies are already privately debating who might replace Reince Priebus if the embattled chief of staff leaves the White House, whether by his own accord or by the president’s.
Topping the unofficial list is Wayne Berman, a senior adviser for Blackstone whose name has surfaced previously in connection with the chief of staff position, according to three sources familiar with the discussions. Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser, is also eyeing the position, a source close to the White House said.
But although Berman has emerged repeatedly as a leading candidate for the chief of staff position should it ever become vacant, a source familiar with the situation said Trump has not yet reached out to him directly and speculation about his candidacy for the job is just that. The source noted that while Berman was at the White House this week, he did not meet with the president.
Priebus’ status has become increasingly tenuous since Trump hired Anthony Scaramucci, a financier and political novice, to take over as communications director despite Priebus’ objections. And although observers have incorrectly predicted that Priebus would soon exit the West Wing since the administration’s earliest days, sources close to the White House say the likelihood that Priebus’ departure is imminent has never been higher.
“This is legit real. This time it’s real,” one source told the Washington Examiner. “Reince made a terrible mistake by leaking all this crap on Anthony.”
The source pointed to what Scaramucci has described as a “leak” of his financial disclosure form to Politico, although the reporter who published a story about the form on Wednesday has said she obtained the publicly available document by requesting it from the Export-Import Bank. But the source said another detail in the story was also something only a high-level White House official could have known: that Scaramucci was given security credentials during his brief tenure at Ex-Im that allowed him unfettered access to the White House.
Scaramucci challenged Priebus on Thursday to prove he has not leaked to the press just hours after sending a cryptic tweet that seemed to accuse the chief of staff of disclosing financial documents to reporters.
“When I put out a tweet and I put Reince’s name in the tweet, they’re all making the assumption that it’s him because journalists know who the leakers are,” Scaramucci said during an appearance Thursday morning on CNN of reporters’ speculation that he had tagged Priebus in a tweet about leaking because he suspected the chief of staff of being a leaker.
“So if Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that,” Scaramucci added.
The rift between Trump’s chief of staff and his incoming communications director has seemingly widened in the week since Scaramucci accepted a job in the West Wing.
Last week, Scaramucci likened the strain in his relationship with Priebus to the rivalry among “brothers” who “rough each other up every once in a while.” But he told reporters at the White House on Friday that the two would set aside their differences for the good of the team.
This week, however, Scaramucci has painted a less optimistic picture of his ability to work with Priebus in perpetuity.
“We have had odds, we have had differences,” he said during a CNN interview on Thursday. “I don’t know if this is repairable or not. That will be up to the president.”
Scaramucci was more blunt in an interview with the New Yorker in which he made clear to the reporter he believed Priebus had leaked.
“Reince Priebus — if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly,” the communications director said. The story also quotes Scaramucci as calling Priebus a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic.”
Priebus advised against the president’s decision to bring Scaramucci in as communications director, and one of his top allies in the White House, Sean Spicer, resigned in protest of the hire.
A source familiar with the events of last week told the Washington Examiner that Ivanka Trump pushed to place Scaramucci in charge of communications, while Priebus, Spicer and chief strategist Steve Bannon opposed it and did not know about the move until shortly before Trump made his final decision.
Internal tensions between the chief of staff and Scaramucci have spilled out into the open this week as the incoming communications director has flexed his muscles as the newest — and perhaps most aggressive — representative of the president.
Scaramucci has vowed to rid the West Wing of any staffer caught disclosing sensitive information to the media, a threat that comes as Trump attributes some of his frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions to the Justice Department’s slow progress toward prosecuting leakers.
One source close to the White House told the Washington Examiner that an overhaul of the press shop is long overdue.
“There’s a lot of unqualified people who didn’t do anything to get the president elected,” the source said. “They’re not the best and the brightest.”
Another source said the staffing shuffle that is likely to hit the communications office should not be viewed as an effort to undermine Priebus, even though the two resignations that occurred in the last week came from former Republican National Committee officials who worked closely with Priebus before they came to the White House and even though the names most frequently floated as the next to go are also RNC alums.
“Forget about the Reince loyalists and any of that nonsense, some of these people are just no good,” the source said. “This is not an intern program. This is the NFL.”
Priebus, the former RNC chair, has weathered months of speculation that his tenure in the White House will soon be over, and yet he has so far survived. Many of Trump’s populist supporters and former campaign hands remained skeptical of Priebus due to what they saw as the RNC’s reluctance to embrace Trump during the GOP primaries, and they spent months stoking rumors that Priebus’ job was vulnerable.
The base’s skepticism of the Republican establishment figures in the White House, an individual familiar with the situation said, is one reason why Cohn may face obstacles ascending to the chief of staff position should he choose to push more openly for the post.
Multiple sources have described his once-rocky relationship with Bannon as a warm alliance of convenience that formed in response to the rising influence of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and Cohn.
But people close to the White House have long said privately that Priebus has struggled to consolidate power within the West Wing. He suffered an early blow in March when his deputy, fellow RNC alum Katie Walsh, left her position to join an outside group that promotes the president’s policies. Priebus had advocated during the transition for Spicer to land the position of press secretary, and several people close to the White House have said the other former RNC hands still in the communications shop face uncertain futures under Scaramucci’s leadership.
Although David Urban, a former Trump campaign official, has been mentioned as a possible chief of staff should Priebus ever leave the White House, a source familiar with the situation said Urban has indicated low interest in the position.
Trump has not begun interviewing candidates for Priebus’ replacement, the source said.
However, the source noted Trump is “getting pretty close to that” and would be unlikely to conceal the process if he ultimately decided to proceed with a chief of staff search.
“I don’t think the president cares about Reince’s sensibilities right now,” he said.
Incoming White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to affirm Trump’s confidence in Priebus on Thursday but stopped short of saying Trump is dissatisfied with his chief of staff. She said the president enjoys fostering “healthy competition” among his staff and noted the president would remove Priebus should he ever become unhappy with his performance.
