New White House’s new spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham may be most notable for her silence, having sent only a single tweet during her boss’ highly volatile last week. Grisham is evidently fine for now to let others, especially the president, do the talking for her, and she’s formulating a plan that would leave much of her office’s day-to-day decision making and management to deputies.
The White House will hold a summit on social media next month amid growing criticism from President Donald Trump and some in Congress. White House spokesman Judd Deere said the July 11 gathering “will bring together digital leaders for a robust conversation on the opportunities and challenges of today’s online environment.” The White House did not say who will take part and major social media firms did not immediately confirm they will take part.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will leave the job at the end of the month, President Donald Trump said Thursday. In a pair of tweets, the president said Sanders will return to her home state of Arkansas. He thanked her for what he called a “job well done.” “I hope she decides to run for Governor of Arkansas — she would be fantastic!” Trump tweeted. He did not immediately announce who would replace her.
White House Revoking Press Passes
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank: “After covering four presidents, I received an email informing me that Trump’s press office had revoked my White House credential. I’m not the only one. I was part of a mass purge of ‘hard pass’ holders after the White House implemented a new standard that designated as unqualified almost the entire White House press corps, including all seven of The Post’s White House correspondents.
Reporters have long approached White House press secretary Sarah Sanders with a trust-but-verify attitude, knowing full well that Sanders is tasked with spinning some of the more unspinnable statements made by her boss, President Trump. But with the publication of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report last week, Sanders’s credibility among the people who cover her has been stretched about as taut as a violin string.
Concerned that the White House may have influenced the Justice Department’s decision to try to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger, Hill Democrats asked for any correspondence between the White House and Justice Department relating to merger. But the White House counsel declined, citing executive privilege.
Exclusives
Trump has now burned through five communications directors, raising the question of whether he really even wants one.
President Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of his communications director, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job. Shine will join the president’s re-election campaign as a “senior adviser.” It was not immediately clear if the president urged Shine to resign, or the extent to which he will be directly involved in Trump’s 2020 operation.
Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda? As the president has been beset by scandals, congressional hearings, and even talk of impeachment, Fox has been both his shield and his sword. The White House and Fox interact so seamlessly that it can be hard to determine, during a particular news cycle, which one is following the other’s lead.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine got $8.4 million in severance pay from 21st Century Fox after he left in May 2017. He’ll also receive bonus and options payments in 2018 and 2019 amounting to $7 million for the two years combined. The agreement is set to expire May 1, 2019.
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd on Tuesday criticized the White House’s new rules for reporters at presidential news conferences, calling them “absurd” and predicting that journalists won’t follow them.
After a federal judge ordered that CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credentials be temporarily restored last week, the White House sent Acosta a letter saying it had made the “preliminary decision” to suspend his pass. The White House said Acosta would continue to hold his credentials while the 14-day judge’s order was in effect. CNN sought an emergency hearing, saying in a Monday court filing that the administration was creating “retroactive due process.”
In a legal filing ahead of a Wednesday hearing on CNN’s request for a temporary restraining order to restore Acosta’s access, the government argues it “was lawful” to punish Acosta for his behavior during a contentious Trump press conference last week.
CNN has sued the White House for pulling Jim Acosta’s press credentials. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Washington, D.C., District Court. CNN claims the revocation of Acosta’s press pass violates the constitutional rights to freedom on the press and due process. CNN is asking for an immediate restraining order to return Acosta to the White House.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders distributed an altered video of CNN’s Jim Acosta that made his actions at a news conference look more aggressive toward a White House intern.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told a Senate panel Thursday that Don McGahn, the White House counsel, called for a “status update” on the agency’s action on the deal on July 16 ot 17. Tribune scrapped the deal on Aug. 9.
Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Kaitlan Collins was denied access to Trump’s Rose Garden event with the European Commission president on Wednesday because of her refusal to leave the Oval Office during a previous availability with the president.
Now that Shine is in the saddle, it’s Mooch 2.0: Kelly is being humiliated, Sarah Sanders has been deemed low energy, and the biggest winner of all is, naturally, Sean Hannity.
President Donald Trump is announcing Bill Shine, the former co-president of the president’s preferred television channel, as his deputy chief of staff for communications. His expected hiring was reported last week.
The White House press office is getting a bit more Sunshine these days — former Disney Channel star Caroline Sunshine, that is. She’s joining the team as a press assistant. Sunshine, 22, is known for her role alongside Zendaya as Tinka Hessenheffer in Shake It Up, a Disney Channel show about teen dancers that ran from 2010 to 2013. She was also in the 2010 film Marmaduke, among other roles.
Two contenders have emerged as the most likely candidates to succeed Hope Hicks as White House communications director after the confidante to President Trump leaves her post at the end of the month. They are Mercedes Schlapp, White House director of strategic communications, and Tony Sayegh, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department.
The departure of one of the president’s longest-serving advisers, who worked as a one-woman communications shop during his winning campaign, came as a surprise to most in the White House — and cast a pall over the West Wing at a tumultuous time. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
AT&T Inc. will try to dig into whether the White House influenced the Justice Department’s review of the company’s planned takeover of Time Warner Inc. if the government sues to block the deal, according to people familiar with the matter. In the event of a trial over the $85.4 billion deal, AT&T intends to seek court permission for access to communications between the White House and the Justice Department about the takeover, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.
Hope Hicks, a longtime member of President Donald Trump’s communications team, will assume the role of White House communications director on a permanent basis, a senior administration official confirmed Tuesday morning. Hicks had taken on the role of communications director on an interim basis last month.
Hope Hicks will be named the new White House communications director. President Trump has offered the job to Hicks and she has accepted the position, according to a White House insider. Hicks has been close by Trump’s side since the early days of the campaign and is one of his most trusted staffers. She has been serving on the press team in more of a behind-the-scenes role as the director of strategic communications.
The new White House press secretary is more understated than her predecessor, Sean Spicer, but she still speaks for a president at war with the media.
Anthony Scaramucci wants to tell his own story. Following his departure from the White House after less than 11 days as communications director, Scaramucci will be hosting an online event on Friday where he will address the American people directly. Scaramucci said this daytime event — which will be available on various live platforms with help from former Fox News co-president Bill Shine — will give him the opportunity to reach and communicate with the President’s base.
President Donald Trump has removed Anthony Scaramucci as communications director, a little more than a week after the former financier was named to the post, three White House officials said on Monday. The change came at the request of new chief of staff John Kelly, who started Monday, the officials said. It was not clear whether he would take on a new role after leaving the communications job, nor was it immediately clear who would take over the position.
The new White House communications director has become obsessed with leaks and threatened to fire staffers if he discovers that they have given unauthorized information to reporters. He started his conversation with The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza by threatening to fire the entire White House communications staff. It escalated from there into an obscenity-laden rant.
New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has fast become one of the most powerful people in the West Wing, putting allies of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus on edge.
Michael Short becomes the second White House spokesman to resign since Anthony Scaramucci took over as communications director.
Anthony Scaramucci, the flashy financier President Trump hired to overhaul the White House communications operation, is exercising a broad mandate from the president and intends to follow through on threats to purge aides he believes are disloyal to Trump and leaking to the press, officials with knowledge of the fast-moving effort said Monday.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the new primary source for information about the future of the nation. Here’s what you need to know about her.
Spicer’s decision appears to be linked to the appointment of a new White House communications director, New York financier Anthony Scaramucci. People with knowledge of the decision spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the personnel matter publicly.
Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, has been engaged in talks to join the White House communications shop, two White House officials said. Scaramucci, who is a frequent TV surrogate for Trump, is liked by the president. Trump “thinks he is really good at making the case for him,” one of these people said. “He loves him on TV.”
The White House is endorsing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to scrap the net neutrality rules. “The previous administration went about this the wrong way by imposing rules on ISPs through the FCC’s Title II rulemaking power,” said Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The White House quickly took advantage Tuesday of the resignation of three CNN journalists over a retracted story about a Donald Trump Russian connection, with blistering presidential tweets and a media scolding at the afternoon press briefing. Conservative provocateur James O’Keefe piled on by releasing a video with a CNN producer caught on camera talking about the network’s Russia coverage being ratings-driven.
