White House communications chief steps down

WASHINGTON: A senior White House official stepped down on Tuesday in what is expected to be the first in a long-speculated personnel shake-up Donald Trump was understood to be planning to extricate his young presidency from an unending cycle of crises.

Michael Dubke, head of the White House communications team that Trump has tended to blame partly for his continuing miseries, and inability to project his message and defend him adequately, has resigned, citing person reasons. A replacement had not been announced.

“I want to thank Mike Dubke for his service to President Trump and this administration,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said in a statement. “We appreciate Mike and are very grateful for his service to President Trump and our country.”

Priebus also said Dubke resigned just before Trump left for his first overseas trip but had offered to stay “onboard until a transition is concluded”.

Trump did not mention Dubke in tweets he posted just minutes before the news broke, decrying in one of them the ongoing Russia probe: “Russian officials must be laughing at the US & how a lame excuse for why the Dems (Democrats) lost the election has taken over the Fake News.”

The president also targeted Germany in a tweet, bringing up its trade surplus with the US and not meeting its Nato defence spending commitment.