Report: White House Shakeup Could Be Coming

One mistake too many, or yet another liberal mainstream media smear attempt on President Donald Trump?

Either way, The New York Times has reported the president is looking very seriously at making a major shakeup of his senior White House staff following the mismanaged rollout of his decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey. Among the names reportedly on the chopping block:

• White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus
• White House Communications Director Michael Dubke
• White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer

The report states:

He has been especially critical of Mr. Spicer, they said, openly musing about replacing him and telling people in his circle that he kept his own press secretary out of the loop in dismissing Mr. Comey until the last possible moment because he feared that the communications staff would leak the news.

Mr. Spicer’s blustery style mimics Mr. Trump’s, but people close to both men said he has not developed an especially close relationship with the president and has failed to use the self-protective tools that savvier Trump aides have adopted.

That seems to be changing. On Friday, Mr. Spicer prefaced much of what he said at the daily briefing with “The president’s statement.” And while Mr. Trump has raised the Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle to allies as a possible press secretary, he has spent several hours with Mr. Spicer this week, praising his television “ratings” during the briefings.

The White House Press Corps has been particularly unkind to the White House communications team since the day after the election last November. But, The Times has been among the worst—particularly in delivering what is arguably “false news” from so-called anonymous sources within the White House.

This same article spends much of its time hammering the president, suggesting he was purposely throwing his staff under the bus with the expectation that they will shield him from direct criticism. As usual, it only quotes anonymous sources, or former Clinton and Obama administration officials who still have an ax to grind after losing the election last fall.

But chatter has been growing for weeks that Priebus and his allies in the West Wing were coming increasingly under the gun with the president for the way they have mishandled important issues. So for now, we have to label this report as “wait and see.”