US President Donald Trump PHOTO/ Evan Vucci AP
WASHINGTON — The White House has been rattled by two weeks of muddled messages, departures and spitting matches between the president and his own top officials. Now Donald Trump is facing a shrinking circle of trusted advisers and a staff that’s grim about any prospect of a reset.
Even by the standards of Trump’s often chaotic administration, the announcement of Hope Hicks’ imminent exit spread new levels of anxiety across the West Wing and cracked open disputes that had been building. One of Trump’s most loyal and longest-serving aides, his director of communications often served as human buffer between the unpredictable president and the business of government.
Hicks’ departure comes as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation appears to be circling the Oval Office.