| | | | Donald Trump's chaos presidency | | President Donald Trump fired Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Friday, a move that completes a purge of Washington insiders from Trump's inner circle and virtually ensures an even harder turn into his outsider rhetoric and approach. The news, as with so much from Trump, came via Twitter just before 5 p.m. on the East Coast.
The Priebus firing proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Trump's attempts to merge his New York and family worlds with the more staid environment of official Washington had failed miserably -- and that he has clearly sided with those urging him to be more himself over those who had hoped to bend him somewhat to the ways of the nation's capital.
The ouster of Priebus came a week after White House press secretary Sean Spicer, a Priebus ally, resigned following Trump's decision to appoint Anthony Scaramucci, a New York hedge fund manager and personal friend of the President, to the job of communications director.
The intervening week was chaos -- plain and simple. Trump's already-manic tweeting reached new highs (or lows depending on your view) as he repeatedly went after his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Scaramucci immediately put himself in the center of this three-ring circus too -- blasting Priebus in graphic terms in an interview with the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza. (Scaramucci also bragged to Lizza about his firing of Michael Short, a Washington hand serving in the White House press shop, and insisted he was conducting a top-to-bottom staff review -- the sort of thing a chief of staff typically does.)
Trump was silent on Scaramucci's public flaying of Priebus -- a sort of tacit acknowledgment that the Mooch (as he refers to himself) was acting on the boss's orders. And everywhere you looked were signs that Priebus' days were numbered -- a man without allies faced with a President with an itchy firing finger.
The only Washington insider remaining in Trump's inner circle is Kellyanne Conway, a pollster-turned-strategist with close ties to Vice President Mike Pence. Aside from Conway, the Trump inner circle is composed of family (Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner) and political outsiders (Steve Bannon and Scaramucci).
What the staff moves reflect is Trump's belief, despite constant public proclamations to the contrary, that his first six months in office have been devoid of accomplishments -- a lack of successes reflected in poll numbers that are at or below historical lows for a president in his first half-year in office.
What's clear is that what Trump is doing isn't working. And what's equally clear is that Trump believes the reason for that is the poor advice he has received from his veteran Washington hands.
And so, Kelly is in, Priebus is out. Scaramucci is in, Spicer is out. New York -- and Trump's family -- is ascendant.
The dismissal of Priebus removes the last major impediment to letting Trump follow those instincts at all times. While it's hard to imagine how Trump could be "more Trumpian" than he has been in the first six months in the White House, you can bet that is exactly what he plans to be going forward.
Trump is free to be Trump. Get ready.
--Chris (read my full take here) | | | CREDIT: New York Post / Twitter. | | ICYMI: This has been a long week (New York Post wins for best cover, above). CNN's Marshall Cohen created a very handy timeline for the Point:
Friday, July 21: Then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quits after Trump hires Anthony Scaramucci to be Spicer's boss as White House Communications Director.
Monday, July 24: White House senior adviser Jared Kushner sits down for an interview with staff from the Senate Intelligence Committee, as part of the committee's investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Tuesday, July 25: The GOP-controlled Senate rejects Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Tuesday, July 25: Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort meets with Senate intelligence committee staff for an interview as part of the committee's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Wednesday, July 26: The GOP-controlled Senate rejects a proposal to repeal Obamacare and replace it later.
Thursday, July 27: The New Yorker publishes vulgar and profane comments made by Scaramucci in an interview the night before.
Thursday, July 27: White House chief of staff Reince Priebus offers his resignation to Trump.
Friday, July 28: The GOP-controlled Senate rejects the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare.
Friday, July 28: Trump announces Priebus' departure from the White House in a tweet. | | FAREWELL TO THE CHIEF (OF STAFF) | | Since the position developed more than seven decades ago, never has a White House chief of staff's term ended more swiftly than Reince Priebus's.
CNN's Grace Hauck, Dylan Stafford and Ryan Struyk have more:
With a single tweet, Reince Priebus has landed in the history books: His six-month stint in the White House ended on this rainy Friday evening when he became the shortest-serving chief of staff. Ever. Since the position developed more than seven decades ago, no White House chief of staff's term has ended more swiftly than the former GOP chairman's short 189 days on the job. The average tenure of the 29 chiefs of staff since the position was first created in 1946 stretches nearly two and a half years. | | After last night's dramatic, late night health care vote, many -- including CNN -- highlighted Sen. John McCain's "maverick moment" on the floor, where he cast his no vote.
But as Vox's Alexia Fernández Campbell pointed out in this article, "what McCain did was hard. What Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins did was much harder." Campbell wrote: "To be sure, McCain's vote against the bill was dramatic and decisive. He flew back to Washington from Arizona less than two weeks after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, after having surgery to remove a blood clot from above his eye. He made a sweeping speech about returning Senate procedure to a time of bipartisan, transparent cooperation. Then he proceeded to briefly horrify ACA proponents by voting yes on a motion to proceed vote, and yes again on the Republican Better Care Reconciliation Act. So when McCain cast a performative last-minute vote against "skinny repeal," it immediately overshadowed the two women Republican senators who did far more to halt Republicans' reckless efforts to repeal Obamacare. Murkowski and Collins were the only Republicans to vote against a motion to proceed with the health care bill debate. ... Through all of this, the backlash against these two women senators was severe. Two House Republicans threatened them with violence."
Just some food for thought. | | | We're in sunny Los Angeles with some other members of the CNN Politics team. So it felt appropriate to make today's interlude "Another Day of Sun" from the "La La Land" soundtrack. | | | Speaking of Los Angeles ... join CNN Politics at this year's POLITICON, which some have deemed the "Comic Con of politics" or "politics-chella." | | Anthony Scaramucci aka the Mooch aka the new White House communications director was supposed to be at POLITICON, too.
But he pulled out after The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza published a piece Thursday night detailing a phone conversation he had the previous evening with Scaramucci. In case you need a refresher, here's Chris' story highlighting the most bananas quotes from the piece, ranked.
POLITICON organizers sent this statement to us:
"While Anthony Scaramucci decided to cancel his scheduled appearance at Politicon this year, the beauty of Politicon is that we have dozens of huge names that political junkies will love, from Chelsea Handler, James Carville, America Ferrera, Cenk Uygur, and Rob Reiner to Ann Coulter, Roger Stone, Tomi Lahren, Ben Shapiro, and Ana Navarro. At least now we don't have to worry about violating any local obscenity laws!" Anyway, here's a GIF from exactly one week ago when the Mooch blew the press an air kiss. He's seemingly not a big fan anymore, per one of his recent tweets. | | Maryland Rep. John Delaney just became the first Democrat to enter the 2020 race, announcing his intentions in a Washington Post op-ed. POLITICO first reported news of Delaney's intention to run on Thursday.
"Our government is hamstrung by excessive partisanship. We are letting critical opportunities to improve the country pass us by," he wrote in the op-ed. "And we are not even talking about the most important thing: the future. The victims of this leadership failure are the good people we are sworn to serve, and we are leaving our country ill-prepared for dramatic changes ahead. The current administration is making us less prosperous and less secure. I'm running because I have an original approach to governing and economic policy that can put us on a different course."
CNN's Eric Bradner writes:
Delaney, 54, is a three-term moderate who is an extreme longshot. He's not running for re-election and is bypassing a run for Maryland governor. Let's be honest here -- more than anything, this reflects the reality that just about every elected Democrat thinks a couple big things: 1) They can beat Trump, and 2) The best-known Democratic prospects -- Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren -- all have good reasons they might not run, which could mean a truly wide-open race.
Why do even Delaney's allies admit he is an extreme longshot? Beyond his lack of a national profile, Delaney is well to the right of the Democratic primary electorate. He previously pushed minimum wage hikes, but for amounts short of the $15 an hour that progressives have sought (and Delaney now says he backs). He has proposed allowing businesses to repatriate money earned overseas without paying taxes in exchange for buying infrastructure bonds.
Read more in Eric's #2020Vision memo. | | A sketch President Donald Trump drew of the New York skyline in 2005 sold in an auction Thursday for nearly $30,000,
The piece (pictured above) was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Auctions. Here's the description from the listing:
Donald Trump hand-drawn and signed sketch of the New York City skyline, with Trump Tower at its center. Composed and signed ''Donald J Trump'' in gold marker, artwork measures 11.5'' x 9'', nicely matted against gold and framed to 18.5'' x 16''. Light smudge and abrasion to right side, otherwise near fine condition. Originally drawn by Trump for a charity event, and very rare, with only a handful of such drawings known.
More in CNN's Liz Stark article here. | | | HAPPY FRIDAY! Go get yourself some ice cream to celebrate. A reminder: Please tell everyone you know to subscribe. And look out for a special edition of The Point tomorrow, in honor of Politicon. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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