Despite the harangues of gatekeepers, a president has the ability to reach out and talk with anyone he (and, one day, she) wants. If the senior White House staff is not populated with people the president wants to have around for their sound advice, the president will start looking outside the West Wing.
Like fantasy football, observers can play armchair quarterback about the team President Trump “should” have around him, but the key ingredient is having a variety of people whom the president trusts, respects and will listen to.
Republican presidents always have a fitful relationship with their communications team due to the hostility of the left-leaning D.C. press corps, which is a skeptical bunch even before you look at their political proclivities. Add to this historic press bias the additional challenges of working for a president who has cleverly mocked opponents, including some in his own party; is taking on the D.C. swamp; is facing a #resistance; and, of course, swinging in the fight against what Steve Bannon called the “corporatist, globalist media elite,” which President Trump shortened to “Fake News.”
Some of these fights are inherited from decades of political warfare, but none have been waged with President Trump’s shock and awe of daily sorties dispatched toward his opponents.
Before he entered politics, Trump made a career in television and understands modern communications, much like Ronald Reagan understood how to turn a phrase and emotionally connect after decades in the movies. Reagan and Trump are very different men, but Trump’s understanding of how to reshape the conversation with a blunt message through social media does correspond to Reagan’s true artistry of well-honed political speech that allowed him to go around a mocking press and touch the heart of America.
{mosads}Although speeches are still important and impactful, we live in a time when messaging needs to hit the bloodstream more quickly and the time required between those message hits is evaporating.
Therefore, one of the most useless conversations transfixing the political class in Washington is TOTUS: The Twitter of the United States by the Tweeter of the United States. Some cheer it, others believe it is the perfect example of Trump excess. The reality is that Twitter is just the simplest form of the message hit. It is a quick way for a leader to change the topic, give a succinct answer to a question never asked and add personality to the regulated nature of institutions like the presidency. Love it or hate it, President Trump is forever changing how a president communicates and some people just resist change.
It has been clear for a few months that President Trump intends to be the lead messenger for his administration, that he has chafed at the old rules and customs surrounding White House press availabilities, and those who wish to manage his message delivery.
Mike Dubke, former White House communications director, is a seasoned professional who is organized and measured. Sean Spicer, outgoing White House press secretary, is a rapid-response tiger who can hit back and work a story to death. In other scenarios their pairing might have resulted favorably. Some experts argue that no one can perform as a communications advisor for President Trump, and with the shake up in the White House communications that theory will be tested.
Since Friday, the country has gotten a full measure of incoming White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. As expected, most of the GOP old guard is incredulous that someone with no political communications background has the audacity to take the helm and organize the most complicated job in politics: Fair coverage for an activist GOP president.
But the eventual selection of Scaramucci is an example that a president should put people around him whom he trusts and from whom he will take guidance. It is hard to predict whom a president will bond with, and when the relationship does not take root, it is a tough thing to witness.
We have all heard Scaramucci’s name mentioned for a variety of jobs, and it seemed inevitable President Trump was going to find a way to include him on his team. I can understand the nervousness of conservatives that another Goldman Sachs alum who is a moderate New Yorker joins the ranks. However, it is of no benefit to the conservative movement if President Trump fails to achieve his major policy goals, partially due to communications failures. In other words, sometimes it takes trying different players to find the right fit to get the team to succeed.
Watching Scaramucci take the podium on Friday in the Brady Briefing Room, I was sincerely impressed with his presence. He was calm, confident, and likable. He seemed to have no animus for the press as he patiently answered questions. I marvel when Republicans can make their case without breaking a sweat, and Scaramucci was Mr. Cool.
He will need that composure as he starts to build a strategy that allows Trump to communicate like Trump, better utilizes the voices of the cabinet and finds a way to do what eludes most GOP administrations: Create a chance at balanced coverage.
I, for one, am bullish on Scaramucci’s ability to put the “deal team” together, a team that can sell the president’s plans and get it done. I’m optimistic if for no other reason than Donald Trump wants — and desperately needs — Scaramucci to succeed.
Matt Schlapp is chairman of the American Conservative Union and CPAC. He was the White House political director to former President George W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @mschlapp.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.