White House press secretary Sean Spicer decided to return to the podium Friday, even though the White House initially said he wouldn’t be back until next week. | AP Photo Spicer’s make-or-break briefing With the president considering changes to his press operation, the White House press secretary is expected to return to the podium Friday.

Press secretary Sean Spicer’s tenure has been mesmerizing from the moment he walked to the podium on Jan. 21 to deliver an impassioned, and largely inaccurate, screed about the crowd sizes at President Donald Trump’s inauguration. With the help of wall-to-wall cable news coverage of his daily briefing and a recurring caricature on Saturday Night Live, he has become a nationally-recognized figure.

But Friday, when Spicer returned to the podium after two days away on naval reserve duty, might mark his day of reckoning.


Trump is considering a shake-up of his communications shop that could elevate Sarah Sanders, Spicer’s top deputy, according to White House officials and advisers close to the president. Trump likes Sanders and has been impressed by her performances this week, several of these people said.

Spicer, who formerly served as communications and strategy director for the Republican National Committee, took on the biggest role of his career less than four months ago. And unlike the firing or sidelining of other senior administration officials, any diminution of his position would be a painfully public rebuke given the outsize role he has played in the public’s day-to-day relationship with the White House.

Spicer has returned to the White House at night the past two days after his naval reserve duty, partially for work and partially to remind people that he remains the press secretary, one associate said. He decided to return to the podium Friday, even though the White House initially said he wouldn’t be back until next week.

“He knows the last three days have not been good for him,” one White House official said.

On Friday morning, actress Melissa McCarthy drove around Manhattan on a Segway kitted out with a podium, dressed up as Spicer, ahead of her return gig hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend.

Trump remains displeased that his operation hasn’t been able to get his message out or fight back against his critics, one official said.

He was livid on Tuesday night at how his press shop handled the firing, said people who have spoken with him, and he hasn't taken any of the blame in private conversations for moves that seem erratic and hard to defend.

Early Friday, Trump tweeted that he was considering scrapping the daily briefing altogether. “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!.......Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Friday morning’s tweets are partially a reflection of his unhappiness, one person said.

Trump’s admission in an NBC interview Thursday that he’d decided to fire FBI director James Comey before hearing the recommendation from the Department of Justice directly contradicted what Spicer, Sanders and other surrogates said after the firing Tuesday, incinerating a hastily conceived White House messaging strategy and leaving outside allies wary of publicly defending the president’s decision.

“It’s completely no win,” said Rick Tyler, a former communications director for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign. “They don’t know what they’re defending because the story will change.”

Spicer told reporters Tuesday night that the Comey firing was triggered by a memo sent to the White House by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein — a narrative repeated by others, but since refuted by the president. Spicer that night also huddled with staffers amid the greenery outside the West Wing apparently to avoid reporters in an episode captured by the Washington Post. He eventually won an editor’s note from the Post clarifying that he was “among” the bushes rather than physically in the bushes.

Spicer’s reserve duty left Sanders speaking for the White House at the height of the crisis. “I gave you the best information I had at the moment,” she said at one point when pressed on why the White House story had changed.

Alex Isenstadt contributed reporting.