West Wing uncertainty continues
WASHINGTON — With a handshake and a presidential kiss on the cheek, Hope Hicks bid farewell to the White House on Thursday, the press-shy communications director taking a rare moment in the spotlight on her final day in Donald Trump’s administration.
The exit of the president’s most trusted aide, coming one day after yet another Cabinet departure, highlights continuing uncertainty among Trump aides and White House staff about who might be the next to go.
Hicks departed the administration on her own terms and was given a gracious goodbye by Trump outside the Oval Office in view of reporters. That stands in stark contrast to the White House treatment of David Shulkin, the Veterans Affairs secretary who was fired amid ethics questions and replaced by a White House physician who has no experience running a bureaucracy or working with veterans.
As Trump allies defended the choice of Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, scrutiny quickly shifted to a number of other Cabinet members facing ethics questions and with strained relationships with the president, as well as a White House chief of staff who has found his influence diminished. Trump aides and outside advisers suggested that other changes weren’t imminent, but no one could say how long that would last.
White House officials are apprehensive about Hicks’ departure, given her unrivaled position in the president’s orbit. Despite her title as communications director, Hicks was more accurately described by White House officials as Trump’s right-hand-woman and media gatekeeper, providing needed doses of affirmation to the president and able to deliver bad news to him with few repercussions.
The internal jockeying to replace her — if Trump even chooses to do so — has featured backstabbing and planted news stories that, in turn, bash the leading candidates: Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, and Tony Sayegh, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department.
Many close to the White House, however, expect senior adviser Kellyanne Conway or press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to assume the role, at least temporarily.