After several months in the position of White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer has officially lost all legitimacy with the public, apparently. Spicer announced June 19 that he was leading a search for a replacement press secretary in an effort to “shake up” the communications department, which Trump believes is at fault for the country’s poor reception of him (it’s not).
According to one anonymous commentator who spoke to Politico, Spicer “should” be looking at a senior level position in the White House, but may simply be poising to leave entirely. In recent weeks Trump has put heaps of blame on Spicer and is apparently furious with him.
He snubbed Spicer pretty intentionally when at the last minute he denied the press secretary, who is a practicing Catholic, the opportunity to accompany Trump to his meeting with Pope Francis.
He also allegedly blamed Spicer for the backlash to Comey’s firing, and lately Spicer has been kept away from the public eye. Communication duties have been divided between Spicer and Sarah Huckabee-Sanders instead, who has been keeping us informed of Bitcoin news.
And when media attempted to figure out why Spicer was being hidden, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said it was because he was getting fat. At this point it’s abundantly clear that the White House has no respect for Spicer. Even as he delusionally hopes he will get a promotion, it is clear Trump is preparing to fire him and blame the past six months on his former press secretary’s incompetence.
The hunt for a new press secretary is nothing more than the hunt for a new patsy to take on all the blame for the next six months of Trump’s presidency. No press secretary will ever be able to “succeed,” as it were, under Trump’s office because the way he works fundamentally leaves his press secretary misinformed and forced to lie. Although we all riff on Spicer for his absurd claim that Trump’s’ inauguration was the most viewed in history, “period,” it’s also almost certainly the case that Trump explicitly ordered him to deliver that exact message.
Trump likes to blame his press secretary in order to take the blame off himself. If he claims it’s a communication error, he can absolve himself of all blame by using plausible deniability to suggest that the reality is, well, whatever his audience wants to believe it is. If Spicer, or any future secretary, says something that doesn’t sound right to them, they can reassure themselves it’s because of the press secretary’s incompetence and inability to communicate Trump’s true message.
Spicer inexplicably hitched himself to the Trump bandwagon, then discovered that it was a no-win situation with a grumpy, moody, stupid boss and a nation looking to shoot the blatantly lying messenger. Whoever he chooses to replace him is going to have an equally miserable time, will be dragged through the mud just as fiercely and will be spat out in a matter of months as well. Under Trump, there is no right way to the press secretary.