By CASSANDRA GILBERT
Staff Writer
Halfway through October, without any new vacancies in the White House, makes this only the second month out of eight. However, the month’s not over yet.
Rex Tillerson is the current Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is responsible for handling foreign a airs, a strange role for a former oil tycoon. Tillerson is the most recent in a long line of advisors who’s suffered the Trump tweet feud.
Although the only predictable component of the White House over the past eight months is a Twitter wrath released on anyone who makes Trump potentially look bad, Americans are pretty con dent of Tillerson’s imminent leave of office. The only two questions have been: will he resign before getting red and when will it happen?
Thus far, there have been roughly three rings and 14 resignations of prominent members of the
Trump administration with countless other threats.
In actuality, however, this is somewhat up for debate. Some of the resignations were forced by the Trump administration. For example, Steve Bannon resigned, but it came after weeks of pressure and threats of being red. It was never confirmed whether or not Anthony Scaramucci was red or resigned. Trump also requested that 47 U.S. attorneys submit their resignations. Attorney Preet Bharara was red as the only individual of these 47 to not comply with the demand.
The first to lose their position was Attorney General Sally Yates on Jan. 30, after refusing to defend Trump’s first attempt at a travel ban. This was just 10 days after Trump’s inauguration.
On Feb. 13, Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor, resigned after controversial reports emerged about his communications with Russia.
In March, not only did Bharara lose his job, but Katie Walsh, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, resigned as well, giving as her reason
that she wanted to drum up more support for Trump’s agenda.
In April, a rather different approach to an administration problem emerged. K.T. McFarland, Deputy National Security Advisor, was sent to Singapore as an ambassador.
On May 5, Angella Reid, Chief Usher, was red for reasons unknown. This ring was unusual, as Chief Ushers don’t typically lose their positions since they are simply in charge of the household staff.
On May 9, James Comey, FBI Director, was red. After initially claiming the reasoning was based on Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe, the White House made other claims involving the Russia investigation. Following Comey, on May 18, Mike Dubke, Trump’s first communications director, handed in his resignation.
After a quiet June, July faced several resignations. July 6, Walter Shaub, Director of the Office of Government Ethics, resigned after repeated clashes with Trump. On July 21, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, resigned. July 25 marked the Senior Assistant to the Press Secretary Michael Short’s resignation. This was after Scaramucci’s threat to re him for allegedly leaking to the press. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus resigned on July 28. Anthony Scaramucci, Communications Director, stepped down after only eleven days on July 31. Derek Harvey, National Security Council member, was red in July.
August brought three resignations. In addition to Director of the Office Public Liaison George Sifakis, and Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was the big name in rings that month. He resigned after pressure built up following the events in Charlottesville.
In September, Director of Oval Office Operations Keith Schiller and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price stepped down.
Despite the evident pattern of rings and resignations, Tillerson’s position in the administration remains uncertain. The Trump administration has been actively trying to quell any rumors that there is any problem between the two. Both Trump and Tillerson have gone back and forth with their semi-public feud, but recently have attempted to subdue talk of any rift.
The tension between Trump and Tillerson comes from Trump’s attacks on Tillerson’s attempts to amicably handle the North Korea situation and the alleged comment from Tillerson that Trump is a “moron.”
However, after the incredible resignation numbers as well as lack of policy accomplishment, the Trump administration seems to be putting a greater value on keeping its cabinet members.
Time will tell just how important this new policy is to the still young administration.
