“Believe me, everybody wants to work in the White House,” President Donald Trump told reporters in March — but as staff continue to depart without being replaced, that doesn’t quite seem to be the case.

Rather, the president’s top allies and loyalists, including many responsible for helping Trump ascend to the West Wing in the first place — people like Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie and Jason Miller — are hanging on to their roles as outsiders.


They’re in constant communication with Trump, chatting him up in early morning or late-night phone calls or dropping into the White House and flying to rallies aboard Air Force One.

When they aren’t talking with Trump, they are talking for, and to, him on TV. One upside? He can’t talk back, let alone assign blame when something goes wrong, as it so often does.

“I’ll be helpful on the 2020 campaign,” a former senior White House official said. “I don’t have to be an employee to do that.”

Lewandowski, the president’s first campaign manager, was mentioned as a potential reelection head or even successor to chief of staff John Kelly earlier this year — but recently joined Vice President Mike Pence’s outside group instead. His “Let Trump Be Trump” co-author, David Bossie, a 2016 deputy campaign manager, remains at his advocacy group Citizens United — while, like Lewandowski, frequently appearing on Fox. The pair have been spotted dining at the White House between giving speeches to party activists, joint book events and their outside consulting work.

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CNN features as regular commentators Miller, the chief spokesman for Trump’s last campaign and the transition, and David Urban, a longtime lobbyist who helped steer Trump’s narrow November victory in his native Pennsylvania.

Others who are advocating on the president’s behalf from outside the West Wing or reelection campaign include now-former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former campaign and transition spokesman Bryan Lanza, and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp — though his wife, Mercedes, a former Fox News contributor, last year joined the White House as director of strategic communications.

Many of these operatives were originally boxed out during Trump’s chaotic transition, passed over for Republican National Committee veterans with more Washington experience, or have been kept out since amid a crackdown by chief of staff John Kelly on senior staff working without full security clearances. “There are so many gates you have to pass through,” said one Republican strategist who is close to the president.

But amid the administration exodus — which is hollowing out not just the communications office but various policymaking arms — the absence of some of Trump’s closest political advisers is striking.

There are myriad reasons for those uninterested in ever formally returning — especially those who enjoy direct access to Trump. The hours are too long, and the pay is lousy. POLITICO surveyed more than a dozen veterans of the 2016 campaign, and less than 25 percent said they could envision returning for the 2020 slog.

Some say they’re waiting until after the midterms, in anticipation of a possible Democratic wave.

“Who wants to be there the day after the midterms? Who wants to be that person sitting there saying, ‘Let me explain why we lost 30 seats in the House,’” said the strategist. “Everyone wants to be on the fresh team and be able to sprint to the finish.”

Uncertainty about who will remain in charge of the West Wing is contributing to hesitation among those further down the chain. Hope Hicks departed as communications director in March and has yet to be replaced, while mid-level staffers are being pushed out of the communications shop after the president demanded an end to internecine leaks to the media. Legislative director Marc Short recently announced his departure, and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin is considering an exit — potentially for a role at the CIA.

Kelly himself will hit his one-year mark next month, with no clear sense of how long he plans to stay.

“These folks are not going to have to wait very long for another wave,” said Bill Burton, principal deputy press secretary in the Obama administration, who left after the 2010 midterm elections.

Aides inside and out describe a White House environment where Trump confidants are routinely kept at bay by Kelly and his staff, as one former official described it: “You immediately have a big, red target on your back.”

That’s added to distrust between the loyal formers and those currently inside the West Wing, this official said. “It’s my understanding generals are supposed to answer to their commanders in chief, not the other way around,” the former administration official added. “Does [Trump] have to be surrounded by people who dislike him? Is that a way to staff a White House?”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Outside of Kelly’s sphere of influence, the president is following his own staffing strategies for the reelection campaign. When the president in February had his son-in-law, White House adviser Jared Kushner, announce that Brad Parscale would manage the 2020 campaign, Kelly was kept out of the planning and not told beforehand, according to two people briefed on the decision.

Trump campaign veterans see that as proof that Trump is setting up another bruising and competitive silo.

“I think you’re going to see a round of turf battles,” said one current senior administration official. “However, it looks three months from now is not anything like it will look one year and three months from now, and that’s not how it’s going to look two years from now.That’s just the nature of Trumpworld.”

