‘There Is No Trump Doctrine’: White House in Crisis Holds ‘Rebranding’ Meeting – Which Leaks

20 Percent of Staffers Went to the Press With Complaints

Candidate Donald Trump ran on the platform that as a “successful” billionaire, he was the great business manager and leader the nation desperately needed to save America. Everything he did, Trump suggested, was always on time and under budget. And Trump told America he hires “only the best” people. Instead, as even his supporters are now realizing, Trump is not a great manager. In fact, the White House is grossly understaffed, the infighting makes the news almost daily, the leaks are non-stop, and Team Trump is in disarray. (Of course, then there’s RussiaGate.)

Last week 30 White House staffers, desperately aware the end of Trump’s first 100 days is little more than two weeks away, gathered together at a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, as Politico reports. Half a dozen of them – fully 20 percent – talked with Politico afterwards.

“There is no Trump doctrine,” Trump White House Communications Director Mike Dubke told the stunned attendees, according to Politico’s sources.

“It rubbed people the wrong way because on the campaign we were pretty clear about what he wanted to do,” a White House official in the room told Politico. “He was elected on a vision of America First. America First is the Trump doctrine.”

Dubke and his deputy, Jessica Ditto, “kicked off the discussion of how to package Trump’s tumultuous first 100 days by pitching the need for a ‘rebranding’ to get Trump back on track.”

“I think the president’s head would explode if he heard that,” one of the White House officials present said.

In response, Dubke offered a different explanation for his rebranding remark.

“There is not a need for a rebranding but there is a need to brand the first 100 days,” Dubke says. “Because if we don’t do it the media is going to do it. That’s what our job is.”

The meeting apparently didn’t go over well with everyone. 

Staffers, including counselor Kellyanne Conway, were broken into three groups, complete with whiteboards, markers and giant butcher-block-type paper to brainstorm lists of early successes. One group worked in the hallway. 

“It made me feel like I was back in 5th grade,” complained another White House aide who was there. “That’s the best way I could describe it.”

Dubke says he’s disappointed his team complained to reporters rather than to him.

“It was a brainstorming session and I really wish they had spoken up in the room so that we could have had an open and honest conversation,” Dubke, 46, said. “It is unproductive adjudicating internal discussions through the media.”

The White House – despite the President’s false claims that his has been the most successful in its first 13 weeks, despite the fact that only 11 had passed when he said it last week – is keenly aware the end of its first 100 days is April 29. And they are keenly aware they have accomplished little. No major legislation, the failure of TrumpCare, even the Gorsuch confirmation was a disaster.

Whatever comes next, it’s all but guaranteed to have been part of a plan to “rebrand.”

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license