The ouster of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus severs the most enduring tie to the Republican establishment President Trump formed during his short political career.
When most of the party’s governing class eschewed Trump’s outsider candidacy, the Republican National Committee, under Priebus’ leadership, embraced the businessman and reality TV star. The RNC first saw in Trump someone whose vast wealth could fill GOP coffers. Then they accepted the reality that he was the first choice of primary voters.
Trump was unusually popular among Republican consultants and high-money donors. While “Never Trump” didn’t prevent him from racking up big wins in the primaries, it did help create a stigma against talented operatives joining his campaign.
A big exception was the RNC, which remained neutral during a 17-way Republican presidential race, even as many other party leaders conspired to deprive Trump the nomination as late as during the convention. Trump hailed Priebus as “Mr. Switzerland” for not behaving as the Democratic National Committee did in Bernie Sanders’ race against Hillary Clinton.
Once Trump secured the nomination, the RNC assumed responsibility for much of his general election ground game and data operations. This was always going to be the party apparatus’ task after the disappointments of Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. But Trump’s bare bones operation required him to outsource these functions the national committee to a greater extent than even Priebus must have anticipated, making political observers skeptical they could pull it off.
So when Trump won, it was only natural that plum assignments awaited RNC figures. Sean Spicer became press secretary and filled the communications with other RNC alumni. Priebus won the coveted post of chief of staff, based in part on his close relationships with fellow Wisconsinites House Speaker Paul Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker (the latter now chairman of the Republican Governors Association).
To the victors go the spoils.
Yet Priebus was no more prepared than the less conventional members of Trump’s inner circle to manage something as big as the White House. There were persistent rumors he would be pushed out of the White House very early on in the administration. Spicer, a Priebus friend and ally, resigned last week.
Surviving both Priebus and Spicer is new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who in an expletive-laden interview called the outgoing chief of staff a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic,” among other choice phrases, and all but accused him of leaking. Leaking is a cardinal sin in the Trump White House.
Priebus was said to oppose the hiring of Scaramucci. The brash financier has no relevant political communications experience, although he is a gifted television talker. But after the fate that befell both Priebus and Spicer, as well as the near defenestration of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Scaramucci is likely to fit the profile of new hires in the next wave of the Trump administration.
The people most likely to seek employment in the Trump White House going forward are ambitious and self-confident; they will either be true believers in the president or will convincingly pretend to be through their aggressive pro-Trump arguments; they will be filling jobs bigger than what jumps off their resumes; they will be betting on Trump — and themselves.
This happened during the campaign, especially when the odds seemed to be against a Trump win. Corey Lewandowki was a plausible body man, but not campaign manager. Stephen Bannon was more likely to run opposite research than serve as the campaign’s CEO. Ditto Kellyanne Conway, a respected and capable pollster who became campaign manager.
All of them aimed higher. And despite the ridicule and “Saturday Night Live” skits, all of them were rewarded handsomely for their loyalty to a longshot candidate — even Lewandowski who does not (yet) have a White House job.
“It’s not going to be an easy place for just anyone to work here on out,” said a Republican strategist.
Of course, Trump has given his generals — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Priebus’ replacement as White House chief of staff — a wide berth. And he has held his family close even as the Russia investigation has seemingly closed in.
But Priebus is the latest example that Trump’s early adopters inside the Republican Party aren’t always built for the long haul.
