The revolving door at the Trump administration kept revolving this week. Now, the White House has announced that none other than former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer are back with new positions at the White House. According to a public statement, both of them are going to be serving on the panel that vets prospective candidates for certain other positions at the Trump team, which is officially referred to as the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. The White House fellowship program is described on the official webpage as geared up to “offer exceptional young men and women first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government.”
In the same release in which Priebus’s and Spicer’s addition to this selection team was announced, the White House also revealed that Trump campaign lawyer Justin Reilly Clark and former Pence chief of staff Joshua Pitcock would also be joining the selection commission.
According to the White House website, those selected by this latest crackpot squad will essentially get immersed into an advisory and/or assistant position at the White House in yet-to-be-determined policy areas. The site explains:
‘Selected individuals typically spend a year working as a full-time, paid Fellow to senior White House Staff, Cabinet Secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with leaders from the private and public sectors, and trips to study U.S. policy in action both domestically and internationally.’
Supposedly, fellowships are “awarded on a strictly non-partisan basis,” but what non-Trump supporter would apply to have any part of the chaotic ship of nonsense that is the Trump administration? And who actually believes that people like Sean Spicer would approve anyone for a fellowship that was not completely on board with the president’s chaos? It’s not like Spicer is known for being reserved in his Trump defenses. He’s the one who insisted that Trump’s inauguration crowds were bigger than any U.S. presidential inauguration crowds ever, which Kellyanne Conway described as simply “alternative facts.”
Following his own departure from the White House, which he resigned from around the time that the incendiary eventual Trump opponent Anthony Scaramucci was brought on as a communication official, Spicer has enjoyed developments like a stint on the reality television show Dancing with the Stars. Meanwhile, Priebus, who led both the national and Wisconsin state Republican parties prior to joining the White House, joined the Navy after his own infamously unceremonious firing, which was so quick that his tenure was the shortest tenure ever, excluding explicitly interim chiefs of staff.
Their fates, including returns to the White House, are a bit less dramatic than that of John Kelly, who harshly criticized a whole array of the president’s behavior during a recent talk. In response, Trump ranted:
‘When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X’s, he misses the action & just can’t keep his mouth shut.’
This is coming from the guy who said that he’s “never understood wind.”
….which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do. His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside & said strongly that “John respects you greatly. When we are no longer here, he will only speak well of you.” Wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2020
