The Trump administration does not need a shake-up, it needs a build-up.
Spicer stays. The press secretary should earn combat pay for his service so far, fighting off media assassins far more interested in deposing a president than reporting the news.
Likewise, Kellyanne Conway continually advocates better than anyone else for President Trump, climbing into a pit of vipers on cable news and composing herself brilliantly. “Journalists” like Chris Cuomo, Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper can roll their eyes and demean her all they want, she gets the best of them every time.
Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also proven, certainly in the past week, that she has the mettle for the job.
Trump’s challenge is not the lack of talent on the team but rather the lack of team. He needs people. Lots and lots of people.
There should never be a moment when a communications team member is not with him.
He is apt to tweet (or fire someone) with little or no notice, so staff should essentially be playing man and zone at the same time.
Too often, when Sean Spicer takes the podium, it looks as though he’s been running, sprinting. A more robust staff will both lighten his workload and lower his blood pressure.
Also, the Trump administration needs to do a better job of marketing, and they could learn a thing or two from the greatest marketing firm of all time: the Obama administration.
When Obama pitched an aspect of the Affordable Care Act, we’d see an elegant Rose Garden ensemble complete with a handful of optimistic sick people flanked by dozens of folks in lab coats. The press secretary was fully briefed and prepared to supplement the messaging of the day. Everything was an ad campaign in the Obama administration, and so it must be with Trump.
But someone will need to talk to the boss. Tweets like this one from March 4 cannot happen without a broader plan in place: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
One can imagine Sean Spicer opening Twitter that morning and spitting out his cornflakes.
President Trump must be convinced of the advantage of using his tweets as part of an orchestra of messaging — rather than a random lightning bolt that jars his team to concussion, leaving them easy pickings for the voracious press.
As important, the president must learn to be at peace with the new normal. The maelstrom in the media will not end. They will never give him a break and instances of fair reporting will be rare. They are in the midst of staging a soft coup.
Batten down the hatches, Mr. President. Plan, coordinate and execute every single day and the American people will get the message.
But hire more messengers now.
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