White House staffers shouldn’t be worried about losing their jobs in the weeks ahead, press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday, even as rumors swirled that President Trump may soon institute sweeping personnel changes.
Sanders said chief of staff John Kelly told aides Friday that there would be “no immediate personnel changes at this time.”
“People shouldn’t be concerned,” Sanders said.
Aides have feared major staffing shifts amid a string of resignations and firings at the top of the administration. Earlier this week, Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said CIA Director Mike Pompeo would take his spot, and said he wanted Gina Haspel, a career CIA official, to replace Pompeo. Trump also named Larry Kudlow, a longtime economist and CNBC contributor, to take over for outgoing National Economic Chair Gary Cohn this week.
Sanders said administration officials remained focused on pushing the president’s agenda despite the turnover.
However, aides have told reporters in recent weeks that the West Wing has operated under a shadow of fear and confusion as Trump has continued to threaten additional changes at the highest level of his Cabinet.
One rumored change could hit his national security team, as Trump has reportedly considered replacing national security adviser H.R. McMaster as recently as this week. Sanders said Trump denied he had weighed firing McMaster.
“The president said that it was not accurate, and he had no intention of changing, that they had a great working relationship,” Sanders said of what the president revealed about McMaster during a conversation about the rumors on Thursday.
Meanwhile, assistant to the president Marc Short on Friday said Senate Democrats are a big part of the reason why Trump hasn’t been able to get his nominees through the Senate quickly. Short said Trump’s picks have faced 79 procedural votes in the Senate, and said this reflects Democratic attempts to stonewall his choices.
