Governor of Ohio says White House staff turnover could hamper Trump agenda
President Donald Trump should stop the staff chaos at the White House and “settle it down”, Ohio governor John Kasich said yesterday.
Strategist Steve Bannon became the latest top White House official to be shown the door last week. In seven months in office, Mr Trump has dismissed a national security adviser, a chief of staff, two communications directors and a press secretary, among others.
Mr Kasich, a Republican, is among those who fear the staff churn is hampering Mr Trump’s ability to notch a major legislative victory
“You can’t keep putting new people in the lineup and think you’re going to win a world championship,” said Mr Kasich, who challenged Mr Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and refused to endorse him in the general election.
Mr Bannon and chief of staff John Kelly, a retired marine general, had agreed that Friday would be Mr Bannon’s last day, said Mr Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
David Bossie, a former deputy campaign manager in Mr Trump’s successful run at the presidency, said Mr Bannon wanted to “give the general an opportunity to have a clean slate”.
Mr Bannon repeatedly clashed with other top advisers, most notably Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. But Mr Bossie dismissed concerns that divisions within the White House staff were hurting the president’s ability to get his priorities passed.
“In every presidency there are factions. There’s no difference here,” he said.
Instead, Mr Bossie pinned the lack of a healthcare victory on GOP leaders in Congress. He said he agreed that house and senate leadership have not bought into the president’s agenda, and he claimed that house speaker Paul Ryan and senate majority leader Mitch McConnell owe their positions to the “issues President Trump won on. No one is saying the president is not leading. There’s a lack of leadership on one side of Pennsylvania Avenue”, Mr Bossie said.
US senator Tim Scott weighed in more on the president’s comments on the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, urging Mr Trump to spend time with people who have lived through the nation’s difficult racial past.
He said earlier in the week that Mr Trump had compromised his moral authority with his comments that appeared to equate neo-Nazis and white supremacists with those who came out to oppose them in Charlottesville.
“If the president wants to have a better understanding and appreciation for what he should do next, he needs to hear something from folks who have gone through this painful history.”