- With Stephanie Grisham headed out as White House Press Secretary, the Trump administration is once again faced with managing its unprecedented turnover rate.
- Several former members of the Trump administration have been among the shortest tenured in their positions, with stints lasting between six days (Anthony Scaramucci) to just over a year (Rex Tillerson).
- Grisham will remain in the East Wing working with First Lady Melania Trump. She will be succeeded by Kayleigh McEnany, a spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign – Trump’s fourth press secretary in less than four years.
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President Donald Trump frequently touted his penchant for picking only “the best people” during the 2016 campaign.
Yet through his first three years in the White House, Trump has overseen an unprecedented level of turnover among his top officials.
On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham was ousted as White House press secretary.
Grisham was already Trump’s fourth press secretary in not even as many years.
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She'll be replaced by Kayleigh McEnany, a spokesperson for President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.
It can be hard to keep track of the constant comings and goings, so here are some of the most notable White House departures, many of whom have had some of the shortest stints in the history of their presidential positions.
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State: 405 days
Rex Tillerson faced heavy skepticism during the transition when he was announced as Trump's first secretary of state, particularly given his lack of foreign policy experience as the former CEO of ExxonMobil.
However, subsequent reporting and books on the Trump administration portrayed him as a moderating influence who was one of the few cabinet members willing to stand up to the president.
In one passage of A Very Stable Genius - an early history of the Trump administration written by Washington Post reporters Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig - Tillerson is reported to have rebuked Trump for calling his top military brass "a bunch of dopes and babies" in "The Tank," the most secure room in the Pentagon where classified intelligence is shared.
With the generals remaining silent, Tillerson told Trump, "Mr. President, you're totally wrong. None of that is true."
"The men and women who put on a uniform don't do it to become soldiers of fortune. That's not why they put on a uniform and go out and die . . . They do it to protect our freedom."
Tillerson was fired in March of 2018.
He reportedly learned of the news from then-Chief of Staff John Kelly while on the toilet suffering from a stomach bug.
Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy: 303 days
Dina Powell came to the White House with a strong resume, having served in former President George W. Bush's administration and leading the Goldman Sachs Foundation as president.
She is also fluent in Arabic and a lifelong Republican.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump even reportedly pushed for her to be White House Chief of Staff, but Powell's friends told The New York Times she was ground down by the weekly commute from New York and the constant infighting within the Trump administration.
Powell's nine months in the White House went from March 2017 to January 2018.
Stephanie Grisham, White House Press Secretary: 282 days
The most notable aspect of Stephanie Grisham's tenure as White House Press Secretary is the anomaly that she never gave an on-camera press briefing - usually the main staple of the job.
Grisham is not leaving the White House, instead returning to the East Wing to work for First Lady Melania Trump.
She will be succeeded by Kayleigh McEnany, a spokesperson for President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.
Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services: 231 days
Tom Price set the record for shortest stint as Secretary of Health and Human Services after a stakeout by two POLITICO reporters confirmed he was using military jets and private planes to travel across the globe at the taxpayers' expense, totalling more than $1 million.
Inexpensive commercial flights were often available for many of Price's domestic and foreign destinations, and his predecessors flew commercial for official business within the U.S.
Price resigned on Sept. 29, 2017, just seven months after starting the job.
Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President: 217 days
Dr. Sebastian Gorka - who really, really likes to be referred to as a doctor for his questionable PhD in political science from Corvinus University in Hungary - had a hard time getting settled in the White House.
Known for his outbursts and clashes with reporters, Gorka failed to get a security clearance despite being hired as a White House national security expert.
Gorka moved on to work as a paid Fox News contributor, but lost that job after a wild CPAC speech where he compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Stalin and said she wanted to ban hamburgers.
He is currently a spokesman for a company selling fish oil supplements.
Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist: 210 days
Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News and chief executive of the 2016 Trump campaign, ended up being on the outside looking in after he was fired by then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in the summer of 2017.
Bannon's hardline nationalist ideology and penchant for outrage-driven right wing populism became the bedrock of many of President Trump's early policy decisions.
Often seen wearing layers upon layers of collared shirts, Bannon can dress down more often in his new role as a roving political strategist supporting right-wing populist campaigns worldwide.
Reince Priebus, White House Chief of Staff: 192 days
After arriving at the White House fresh off of his tenure as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus found himself at the hub of the Trump administration's notorious infighting.
His six months as White House Chief of Staff were the shortest in the history of the office.
Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary: 182 days
One of the most famous White House officials in modern history, Sean Spicer burned through his credibility almost immediately after trying to back up Trump's false claim that his inauguration crowd size was the biggest of all time.
He was impersonated on Saturday Night Live by Melissa McCarthy and went on Dancing with the Stars after leaving the White House in August 2017 - though he officially resigned as press secretary on July 21 that summer.
K.T. McFarland, Deputy National Security Adviser: 119 days
K.T. McFarland nears the top of the list of shortest serving Trump administration officials, lasting just under four months on the National Security Council.
She irked longtime national security staffers for being too political, using the "Make America Great Again" slogan among career veterans and even wearing clothing items from Ivanka Trump's fashion line.
She filled in as a press liaison for the NSC in the Ford administration in the 1970s, and her nomination for US Ambassador to Singapore was stalled after she left the White House.
Gen. Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser: 24 days
Gen. Michael Flynn posed numerous red flags that basic vetting would have picked up during the transition, but he was nonetheless given one of the most sensitive posts in the US government.
His communications with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak were a catalyst in the Russia investigation, and he reportedly lied about them to Vice President Mike Pence.
This turned out to be an unmitigated disaster, leading to his resignation and earning him the record of shortest tenure in the office's history.
Flynn later pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI in the Mueller probe, initially cooperating with investigators before withdrawing his guilty plea in January.
Flynn's sentencing has been indefinitely postponed, and President Trump has hinted at pardoning him.
Anthony Scaramucci, White House Director of Communications: 6 days
Six days - that infamously short stint in the White House from Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci has been used as its own time measurement (e.g., Bill Shine lasted 246 days as White House Communications Director, an impressive 22.3 Scaramuccis).
Another casualty of the newly arrived Kelly, The Mooch has since pivoted to a converted-anti Trump media persona.
A profanity-laced tirade in an interview with The New Yorker proved to be Scaramucci's undoing, though he insisted his criticism of other members of the Trump administration was off-the-record.