Tensions soar in White House search for Hope Hicks successor

Hicks, the trusted aide Trump elevated to communications director in the fall, announced her departure earlier this month, kicking off a series of exits and staffing swaps that included firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and tapping CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow, a longtime friend of the Trump family, to replace outgoing National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn.

A senior White House official said finding Hicks’ successor is “important but not urgent” to the president, who has narrowed the list of contenders down to White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, pro-Trump CNN commentator Steve Cortes, Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh, and National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton.

Sayegh and Schlapp are both former Fox News contributors. Schlapp stepped into her role in September, weeks after chief of staff John Kelly took the reins of the West Wing and sought to bring order to the chaotic press shop, while Sayegh joined the administration last spring and served as a temporary detailee in the White House during last fall’s tax reform push. He later returned to the Treasury Department, but has regularly been spotted hanging around the West Wing.

Should Sayegh or Schlapp be promoted to the senior communications role, the move would be accompanied by frustration among current White House staffers.

Sources close to and within the administration said Sayegh has a tendency to “delegate too much,” to boss people around, and to manipulate others for his own benefit. One senior administration official said such behavior has been particularly noticeable in Sayegh’s interactions with female staff.

A person familiar with conversations about the communications director search said Sayegh’s reputation as a “terrible bully” is well known inside the White House.

“I think there is legitimate pushback,” the person said, claiming that Sayegh “doesn’t shoot straight” and “pushes people around to get his way.” However, this person said the concerns about Sayegh that they had heard were not characterized in terms of how the Treasury spokesman treated women specifically.

Another source suggested that talk about Sayegh’s alleged attitude toward women was “definitely somebody knifing him” in the race to replace Hicks, but added that the claims could damage his chances regardless of their authenticity.

Two senior administration officials said a promotion for Sayegh would be enough to convince some of their colleagues to head for the exit.

“The staff exodus if it’s him would be shocking,” one official said.

Others, however, have described him as a smart, talented team member with a track record of success at Treasury. One former Trump campaign hand said Sayegh’s involvement in broadcasting benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act gives him a leg up in the bid for communications director.

“What did we get our big win on? Tax reform,” the person said.

“Tony is in it for the president and a complete team player. He has strong relationships with Secretary [Steve] Mnuchin and the senior staff at Treasury, as well as at the White House and interagency,” added a Treasury source, who described Sayegh as “the kind of guy you want and need in your foxhole.”

Another administration official who has worked closely with Sayegh said the Treasury aide’s management style is “mission-focused” and involves empowering high-performing employees over lower-performing ones. That official said Sayegh’s style was on display during the high-pressure weeks of the tax reform debate, when he “just didn’t have the luxury” of accommodating people in the White House press shop who weren’t working hard toward the goal of promoting the president’s tax plan.

The staffing upheaval that has hit the White House over the past several weeks has raised concerns among Trump’s allies and Republicans on Capitol Hill about whether the turnover is creating a distraction for the president.

And the changes made to the Cabinet this week may not signal the end of the turmoil; national security adviser H.R. McMaster is said to be on his way out of the administration, along with Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. The potential shifts could soon leave Trump working with a team that contains few of the officials who started with him when he took office little more than a year ago.

When Hicks first announced her plan to leave the White House, many supporters of the president assumed Schlapp would succeed her. The longtime conservative commentator previously worked as director of specialty media under former President George W. Bush and was a steadfast defender of Trump on the airwaves prior to taking her current position.

Schlapp is also well-liked by Kelly, who, according to one source, is largely driving the search for a new communications director and has authority from Trump to influence the final decision. Former chief of staff Reince Priebus was given similar permission during the transition to stock the White House press shop with Republican National Committee alumni.

When Schlapp first joined the White House, an overall lack of clarity about her role and responsibilities created tension between her and other communications staffers. A Republican close to the West Wing said the tension never disappeared, claiming “a half-dozen or so people have been critical of her work, inside the West Wing communications shop and elsewhere.”

“What surprised me was the conventional wisdom that Mercy was going to get [communications director],” the source said. “What’s been interesting is the drumbeat of people internally who haven’t been a fan of the way that things have been done and want to look somewhere else” for Hicks’ replacement.

Another source close to the White House said complaints about Schlapp did not suggest she had ever caused trouble internally and mostly involved routine grievances, like her tendency to push the people under her to work hard.

White House staff have also been frustrated with allies of Schlapp “jockeying” for her to be promoted, sources told the Washington Examiner. One person pointed to Schlapp’s husband, Matt, who leads the American Conservative Union and is an influential conservative voice in Washington. The person complained that Matt has “actively campaigned” for his wife during TV appearances, citing a recent MSNBC segment during which he said his wife would be “very open to anything the president wants her to do” and reaffirmed their support for Trump.

But another person familiar with the talks said reports about Matt Schlapp’s involvement in promoting his wife for the communications director job were inaccurate. That person said Matt Schlapp had done little more to help Mercedes ascend in the White House than aid her with some paperwork.

The White House struggled last year to find someone who could replace Anthony Scaramucci after his short-lived stint as communications director. Sources told the Washington Examiner at the time that efforts to recruit a capable outside hire for the position fell flat before Trump selected Hicks, whom he knew well and trusted, to helm his press shop.

Few expect Trump to give as much consideration to an outsider this time around given his apparent preference for elevating insiders who have proven themselves competent, rather than untested newcomers. It’s one of the reasons why White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will take on responsibilities that were previously held by Hicks, like granting interviews with the president and guiding certain messaging, in addition to her current job.