Dubke’s ouster is being presented as a voluntary resignation.

"I want to thank Mike Dubke for his service to President Trump and this administration,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said in a statement on Tuesday. “We appreciate Mike and are very grateful for his service to President Trump and our country. Mike tendered his resignation just before the President's historic international trip and offered to remain onboard until a transition is concluded. Mike will assist with the transition and be a strong advocate for the President and the President's policies moving forward."

A Republican strategist with close knowledge of the situation said Dubke had taken the job knowing that it would be exceptionally difficult.

“I think he went into this with eyes as wide open as they could be and understood what the challenges might be and the challenges ended up being real,” the strategist said. “It’s a tough job to begin with but how do you manage to plan and execute around a president who’s as unpredictable as Trump? I don’t know how you do it.”

Dubke never cut much of a figure in a White House populated with outsize personalities and animated by factionalism and conflict. Trump told people he felt Dubke “could never go on offense” and that he didn’t think Dubke “would be somebody who was willing to go to the mat,” said a source close to the White House. Trump has blamed his communications team for the morass his administration finds itself in, as scandals related to the Russia investigation pile up and dominate coverage of his White House.

Dubke was never truly empowered to shape the White House’s message and did not become a part of Trump’s inner circle of aides. And one of the only times when Dubke was noticed didn’t go over well; Trump told people he was displeased that Dubke was cited in a Politico piece saying the president doesn’t have a foreign policy doctrine, according to the source close to the White House. Trump, the source said, was unfamiliar with Dubke when he was hired.

I tried to get Dubke to cooperate for a profile back in April; he invited me for a meeting in his office in the “upper press” area of the White House, but politely declined to cooperate. This remained the case on Tuesday. “Appreciate the persistence, but still think I will take a pass,” Dubke said in an email.

Dubke’s background made him an object of suspicion on the Trump-loyalist right, at least at first. In its story on his hiring, Breitbart News described him as a “Karl Rove acolyte” who “worked his way into President Donald Trump’s White House.” Dubke’s low profile made him less of a target during his tenure from Breitbart and its fellow travelers than some other establishment figures who have come on board to the White House. But he never fit in to any of the factions inside the White House.