An angry Spicer resigns his job.
Sanders appointed press secretary in White House shuffle
White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned Friday, following the appointment of wealthy financier Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director.
Spicer’s deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was promoted to the press secretary role several hours later.
Spicer’s abrupt and angry departure — which caught even senior West Wing staffers by surprise — reflects the latest upheaval in a White House that has been consumed by chaos and staff infighting since almost the day President Donald Trump took office.
Scaramucci has previously had a tense and fraught relationship with both Spicer and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who both vehemently objected to Trump’s decision to install Scaramucci in the top communications job. Scaramucci has coined a particularly crude nickname for Priebus, and Priebus previously blocked the financier from several other top White House roles.
Scaramucci had been in talks with the president and senior staff all week. But the shake-up comes amid intensifying tumult at the White House as Trump moves to respond to the widening special counsel probe into his campaign’s possible collusion with the Russian government and searches for ways to revive the administration’s stalled legislative agenda.
Trump officially offered the position to Scaramucci, whom he has become closer to in recent weeks, at a meeting with senior staff in the Oval Office on Friday morning. On Thursday, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Scaramucci and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, also huddled privately in the Oval Office to discuss Scaramucci’s new role.
“The president wanted to bring on some folks, to add to the team. They were great,” Spicer said in a brief interview on Friday. “This is something you dream of. I can’t thank the president enough.”
Asked if he had any regrets, Spicer — who on Twitter said he would serve in his post through the end of August — replied: “None.”
In a statement read by Sanders during the daily briefing, Trump said he was “grateful for Sean’s work.”
On Friday morning, the West Wing scrambled to present a united public front. Priebus called a private meeting of the White House communications staff, and made clear that Spicer, who is expected to help Scaramucci transition into the role, is leaving to give the new communications director “a clean slate,” according to someone briefed on the meeting.