President Trump’s controversial decision to hire former Fox News executive Bill Shine came at a crucial time for the White House communications operation, which Republicans close to the administration said is likely to undergo several more changes as the new deputy chief of staff for communications takes the reins.
Aides inside the White House knew it was only a matter of time until Shine, who met with Trump last month, was invited to join the ranks. One administration official said the president’s recent hiring spree of TV pundits was a good indication that he was likely to place someone from the world of entertainment in charge of his messaging. Over the course of a week in late March, Trump tapped former CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow to serve as chairman of the National Economic Council and former U.N. ambassador and Fox News analyst John Bolton to be his new national security adviser.
Though Bolton’s hiring prompted some criticism from dovish lawmakers and nearly quashed a nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, it was the announcement of Shine’s new position on Thursday that left some on the outside fuming, noting that he was ousted from Fox News in part because of his failure to appropriately handle multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. However, Shine himself was never the subject of sexual harassment allegations.
“President Trump is putting himself at risk,” Larry Klayman, a staunch Trump supporter and founder of the conservative judicial group Judicial Watch, told Newsmax TV on Thursday. “He’s pro-women’s rights, but he’s been vilified over the last year and to put someone like Bill Shine in there, who was part of all these sexual harassment scandals at Fox — the president needs to do an investigation before he goes forward with this guy because he’s bad news.”
Klayman suggested Shine was pushed on Trump by longtime Fox News host Sean Hannity, with whom Trump enjoys an unusually cozy relationship. The two frequently bounce ideas off each other. Both Trump and Hannity have lamented the many damaging leaks out of the White House, which are thought to stem more from the West Wing communications shop than various policy departments.
“Shine is a no-nonsense guy just like the president,” a former White House official told the Washington Examiner. “I think one of the first things you’re going to see once he settles into things is a shake-up of the communications unit.”
The purpose of refashioning the internal communications team would be to weed out leakers and better prepare the White House for the remaining five months before the November midterm elections, the anticipated conclusion of the special counsel investigation, and the 2020 presidential election, the official said.
But the White House has also struggled with its day-to-day messaging and uniformity on certain issues, including the recent family separation crisis at the border. Several Trump administration officials offered conflicting accounts regarding the purpose of detaining undocumented adults in separate facilities from their children, creating a weekslong public relations debacle for the president and his allies.
For example, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters last month the administration “did not create a policy of separating families at the border.” But days earlier, Trump’s immigration adviser Stephen Miller told the New York Times “it was a simple decision” to enact a “zero tolerance policy” at the border — even though families are separated during criminal proceedings. And White House legislative affairs director Marc Short later told reporters, “This is not a policy that people are excited about.”
A Republican close to the White House said the botched messaging on family separation was “precisely the kind of error committed by a White House [communications] staff with no seasoned communications director.” The source pointed to similar examples of muddled messaging under Hope Hicks, a 29-year-old former model who rose to communications director before leaving the West Wing in March, including the disorganized messaging campaign surrounding the release of Michael Wolff’s explosive book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, in January.
Shine is expected to use his expertise in television programming to maximize White House messaging during policy rollouts, the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation battle, and the the president’s campaign appearances for incumbent Republicans this fall.
The former White House official said that because Shine already enjoys a close relationship with the president and his family, he is likely to also serve as an adviser on issues outside of the communications arena. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., praised the move in a tweet on Thursday, describing Shine as “competent, hard-working and a believer in making America great again.”
Shine himself did not respond to a request for comment about his priorities or duties as the newest member of the White House senior staff.
