CNN reported on Tuesday that White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham has been fired from her position and will return to her former role as chief of staff for First Lady Melania Trump.
The rather abrupt move came soon after former Rep. Mark Meadows assumed the role of White House chief of staff.
White House shakeup
Grisham took on the role of White House press secretary after Sarah Sanders left the position in June of 2019.
Grisham never fully left her role as Melania’s chief of staff, rather, she added press secretary and communications director to her duties.
Many critics have pointed out that Grisham never held an official press briefing in her nearly 10 months in the position, instead preferring to give interviews to Fox News.
However, the custom of daily press briefings was cast aside while Sanders was still press secretary, as Trump appeared to prefer communicating directly to constituents and the press, often via Twitter.
Additionally, CNN reported that “In recent weeks, Grisham stopped regularly attending senior staff meetings and has not played a major role as the administration has dealt with the coronavirus outbreak.”
Grisham’s reassignment is not entirely unexpected, as Axios reported on Saturday that Meadows was in talks with several candidates to replace her. She told the outlet at the time, “Sounds like more palace intrigue to me, but I’ve also been in quarantine. If true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press.”
Meadows takes over
Trump recently voiced his displeasure with the White House communications team, remarking that “we’ve done a poor job on press relationships, and I guess, I don’t know who to blame for that.”
“Maybe I can blame ourselves for that. I will blame ourselves. But I think we’ve done a great job. I think we’ve done a poor job in terms of press relationship.”
Former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s March ouster brought much uncertainty to the White House, as it’s not uncommon for the incoming chief of staff to make significant personnel changes.
Meadows is reportedly mulling several candidates for Grisham’s vacated position, including Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany and Alyssa Farah, who currently serves as the spokeswoman for the Defense Department. Sources familiar with the situation told CNN that there may currently be others also in the running for the position as well.
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