According to Spinal Tap’s WikiPedia page, the band has had five drummers. Donald Trump has now named six White House communications directors, and he’ll apparently soon need a seventh.
White House communications director Bill Shine has resigned his post and will become a senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, officials announced Friday.
Shine, a former top executive at Fox News before he was forced out in 2017, has worked in what’s become a high-turnover position in the White House since July of last year…. He tendered his resignation Thursday night and Trump accepted, officials said.
I’ve seen some reports that Shine was Trump’s fifth communications director, but I’m inclined to put the overall total at six — just so long as we include the presidential transition process.
Remember, before Trump took office, he tapped Jason Miller, who worked with Trump during the campaign, to be the first communications director in this White House, though he unexpectedly withdrew before Inauguration Day due to personal troubles.
Then Sean Spicer briefly served as both the communications director and the press secretary. When that proved untenable, Trump brought in Mike Dubke for the job. He wasn’t altogether impressed with the White House’s operation, so he quit, making way for Anthony Scaramucci — who didn’t quite make it two weeks in the job.
Though the communications-director job was vacant for a while, Hope Hicks eventually took on the task, before leaving the White House. Bill Shine took the reins, having made the transition from Fox News, though he’s now leaving after about eight months.
I won’t speculate as to who, if anyone, will succeed Shine in the role, though I think it’s safe to say it won’t matter. The Washington Post reported a year ago, “Trump likes to take a very hands-on approach to his media messaging. Whoever gets the title, Trump is ultimately his own communications director.”
That’s as true now as it was then.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."