Trump advisers quietly begin thinking about 'life after Sarah'
The press secretary says she has no plans to step down, but a shortlist of potential replacements is starting to take shape.
By ANDREW RESTUCCIA and NANCY COOK 07/23/2018 06:34 PM EDT
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says publicly that she has no plans to leave the administration, but that hasn’t stopped some people close to President Donald Trump from contemplating “life after Sarah.”
Planning for her eventual exit is on the minds of many Trump advisers and staff members, according to interviews with nearly a dozen current and former administration officials and others close to the president.
Bill Shine, the newly appointed White House deputy chief of staff for communications, has quietly begun asking friends and associates for their opinions about who could succeed Sanders if she leaves in the coming months, according to two people familiar with those conversations.
Shine, in a brief interview, denied having such conversations. “I have not had a meeting or discussion about this,” he said last week, noting he had been on the job for only a short time. Shine praised Sanders and called her a “total team player."
Although no decisions have been made about successors, an unofficial shortlist is already emerging among Trump White House alumni, former campaign aides and other backers of the president.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/23/sarah-sanders-white-house-aides-736247
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