Over the last few weeks, multiple news outlets have reported that there is trouble behind the scenes at the White House. Rival factions are allegedly tearing apart the administration, which is causing President Donald Trump to contemplate making major changes to his staff moving forward. When these issues were brought up during a recent press conference, the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer did his best to shift the narrative.
White House blues
Not long after Donald Trump pulled off the shocking upset win over former Secretary of State and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton last November, it was only a matter of time before the billionaire real estate mogul announced who would be surrounding him in the White House.
As time went on, nearly all of Trump's picks and nominations were criticized by the mainstream media, with even some on the conservative side of the news speaking out. One of the most controversial names to raise eyebrows was former Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon, who was promoted from the campaign to the role of chief strategist in the administration. While Bannon has been considered the president's right-hand man, he's reportedly been losing power ever since Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been more hands on during the day to day operations. Former senior adviser to during the George W. Bush administration, Karl Rove, revealed even more information over the weekend, explaining that Bannon and Kushner are running their own separate factions of power in the White House, with a third being led by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
Trump has reportedly been giving serious consideration as to replacing either Bannon or Priebus, but no decision has yet been made. As reported by The Hill on April 10, Sean Spicer was asked about the issues but quickly dismissed them, despite various amounts of confirmation in the news going as far as describing the White House mood as "Total Chaos."
White House: Reports of Bannon-Kushner fighting are 'overblown' https://t.co/3UWW0Ac8JP pic.twitter.com/bHSUb9r8Og
— The Hill (@thehill) April 10, 2017
While taking questions from reporters on Monday, Sean Spicer was asked about the aforementioned problems within the Donald Trump administration.
"There’s a lot of stuff that was overblown about this that makes it out into the media sometimes," Spicer said of the reports, claiming hey have been "a little more sensational" than they should.
"We’ve got essentially two-and-a-half weeks to turn everything around," says one Trump staffer https://t.co/UZ3TQroIhy pic.twitter.com/fKUWVJQAeA
— POLITICO (@politico) April 10, 2017
The press secretary then went on to label the former host of "The Apprentice" as the "decider," with Sean Spicer claiming that Donald Trump wants to have people around him that give a variety of different opinions and political view points.
"Our battles and our policy differences need to be behind closed doors," he concluded.
Steve Bannon’s role is diminished as other advisers blame him for setbacks https://t.co/B7aJIhQ1pk
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 6, 2017
Deadline trouble
Sean Spicer's comments come not long after an article in Politico reported that close to 30 White House staffers met with some of the highest ranking advisers, including Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway, and held a meeting about a "re-branding" effort for the administration. With Trump's poll numbers dropping by the week, the White House is well aware that they need a shake-up to turn things around, with one anonymous official present at the meeting saying that they have until April 29, Trump's 100th day in office, to get the job done. No information was given as what would take place if the "re-branding" was not a success.
