As the White House struggles to gain its footing almost two months into Donald Trump’s presidency, administration officials increasingly put the blame on one person: Reince Priebus.

In interviews, more than a dozen Trump aides, allies, and others close to the White House said Priebus, the 44-year-old chief of staff, was becoming a singular target of criticism within the White House.


They described a micromanager who sprints from one West Wing meeting to another, inserting himself into conversations big and small and leaving many staffers with the impression that he’s trying to block their access to Trump. They vented about his determination to fill the administration with his political allies. And they expressed alarm at what they say are directionless morning staff meetings Priebus oversees that could otherwise be used to rigorously set the day’s agenda and counterbalance the president’s own unpredictability.

The finger-pointing further complicates life in an already turmoil-filled West Wing, one that has been hobbled by dueling power centers and unclear lines of command.

“There’s a real frustration among many — including from the president — that things aren’t going as smoothly as one had hoped,” said one senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Reince, fairly or not, is likely to take the blame and take the fault for that.”

“It’s sheer incompetence,” said another White House official. “There’s a lack of management, and a lack of strategy.”

The White House vigorously disputes the notion that Priebus is losing the confidence of senior West Wing staff. Senior officials say the president respects the chief of staff for his deep relationships on Capitol Hill and that no staff shake-up is expected in the immediate future.

“We’re implementing President Trump’s agenda in record time and fulfilling one campaign promise after another,” said Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon in a statement sent through a White House spokeswoman. “That shows you what a great job Reince is doing.”

In another statement sent by the White House, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said Priebus “continues to be a strong and effective leader.”

It is unfair to finger Priebus alone for the administration’s missteps. Much of the fault can be assigned to the president himself — a notoriously unpredictable figure who relishes drama. Priebus himself has been caught off guard by a number of controversies — the latest on Saturday, when he awoke to a series of Trump tweets, some of which accused former President Barack Obama, without evidence, of wiretapping Trump Tower phone lines.

The staff scrambled throughout the day to craft a statement that didn’t anger the president but also didn’t create any further headaches. Priebus has frequently lamented that he can’t control the president’s comments and spends much of his time in damage-control mode.

And despite the scrutiny focused on him, Priebus has won credit inside the White House for helping to engineer the rollout of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and playing a central role in overseeing Trump’s well-received congressional address last week.

The focus on Priebus comes at a time of growing distress for the president, who has taken to asking Cabinet members and White House officials for their thoughts on how his chief of staff is performing. Priebus did not accompany Trump on a trip this weekend to Florida, an absence that left many wondering whether Trump, who complained loudly to top aides during a tense Oval Office meeting on Friday over how things in his White House were going, had put his chief of staff in the doghouse.

Some contended that, in such a free-wheeling atmosphere, Priebus has struggled to provide structure. Several aides expressed unhappiness with the daily 8 a.m. senior staff meeting that he runs out of his office. With three flat-screen TVs usually on, the agenda is sometimes driven by that day’s news programs. The gatherings, which often last only 15 to 20 minutes, are typically organized round-robin style, with department heads giving 30-second updates on whatever it is they’re working on.

If an item someone mentions is important, it will result in a later sidebar conversation among a smaller team of top officials. If it isn’t, it’s often forgotten.

Some staffers roll their eyes as Priebus reiterates the need for them not to leak to the press, or as he stresses that if they want to talk to the president they need to go through him or one of his lieutenants, Katie Walsh.

“No one says anything of relevance,” said one senior staffer. “People are more than happy to schedule a breakfast and send their deputy now.”

Others complain about Priebus’ West Wing management, which they argue has become suffocating. They point to his habit of sprinting into meetings — “He literally runs,” said one senior administration official — which has led top aides to believe that he is trying to edge his way into their conversations or monitor their discussions with the president.

A White House official dismissed the criticism, calling Priebus, simply, “high energy.”

There are widespread suspicions that Priebus has tried to block some people with whom he has clashed, such as former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, from talking with Trump. But that hasn’t stopped Lewandowski. Last month, he visited the Oval Office after getting an invitation from the president.

There is a growing sense, too, that Priebus is trying to stack the administration with people who are loyal to him — many of them establishment Republicans he grew friendly with during his Republican National Committee chairmanship — while trying to keep out others. Multiple staffers say there is lingering resentment over the hire of communications director Michael Dubke, an ally of a Priebus lieutenant and press secretary Sean Spicer.

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The staffers said they were under the impression that Dubke, an under-the-radar Republican operative who hadn’t previously been vocally supportive of the president, had been pushed through by Priebus and Spicer without substantial consultation with others. Dubke declined to comment. (A White House official said Priebus didn’t know the communications director prior to hiring him.)

One senior administration official said another big problem was that aides often don’t know “what everyone else is doing on any given issue,” and that Priebus needs to give staffers “clear lanes of responsibility.” The confusion means different people are sometimes sending conflicting messages to lawmakers, Capitol Hill aides or outside groups, this person said, while “all saying that they speak for the president.”

There has also been White House conflict with Cabinet members such as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has vented to friends that Priebus has blocked his choice for deputy secretary, Goldman Sachs managing director Jim Donovan, according to one person familiar with the talks. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, has complained that the chief of staff is picking who will get plum ambassador posts without always consulting others, said another person, who is familiar with that situation.

“There’s a lot of distrust,” this person said of the Tillerson-Priebus relationship. “It’s natural that there will be frustration there.”

To some, Priebus’ determination to always be at Trump’s side — not to mention his desire to place loyalists in the White House — underscores his desire for greater control. He has competed for influence along with several other senior aides, including Bannon, Kushner, counselor Kellyanne Conway and economic adviser Gary Cohn.

“I feel for him,” said one senior administration official. “I really do.”

As frustration mounts with Priebus and his team, it sometimes spills out into the open. During a communications team meeting in late February, Omarosa Manigault, the former “Apprentice” contestant turned White House official, complained that Trump, at that point, had not yet held a Black History Month reception with African-American leaders — and pointedly criticized a Priebus lieutenant for failing to schedule the event, according to three people briefed on the incident.

Preibus, however, has engendered particular loyalty among those staffers he brought onboard, many of whom work in the press office. Some advisers joke the communications office is more protective of Priebus than of the president, and it often mounts an aggressive defense any time he is scrutinized.

The White House rolled out statements from multiple aides for this article. Trump’s legislative aide, Marc Short, called Priebus “essential” to passing the administration’s legislative agenda. Rick Dearborn, another aide, said he is “smart and loyal and never quits.”

This past weekend, though, as Trump arrived in Florida without Priebus at his side, those close to the chief of staff were deluged with questions about why he was back in Washington. And at a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Palm Beach, where the president spoke on Friday evening, there was surprise that Priebus, a former party chairman who remains close to many of the party’s benefactors, hadn’t made an appearance.

As the weekend came to a close, White House officials tried to clear the air. They denied reports that Priebus, after Trump’s Friday flare-up, had been told by the president he couldn’t make the trip, claiming that there had been a “mutual decision” he would stay in Washington. He had initially planned to travel to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and return on a commercial aircraft Saturday for a family engagement. (Bannon flew down Saturday and dined with a number of Trump aides and Cabinet officials.)

The president, they added, was glad that the chief of staff had stayed behind to work. Priebus is helping to oversee a jam-packed schedule that will dominate the administration’s agenda for the week ahead, including the expected release of a new immigration travel ban and a draft health care bill.

Those close to the president say any senior shake-up would be far in the future. But Trump is notoriously mercurial, and he ordered multiple personnel changes on his presidential campaign when things weren’t going right.

If White House employees begin to head for the exits, one aide suggested, a change could come sooner than expected.

“I think the president is starting to figure it out,” this person said, “slowly but surely.”

