Story highlights David B. Cohen: Getting rid of Reince Priebus won't solve the problems caused by a weak chief of staff's office

Only Donald Trump can clean up this mess -- a mess he is responsible for, Cohen writes

David B. Cohen is a professor of political science and a fellow at the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Follow him on Twitter @POTUSProf. The views expressed here are his own.

(CNN) It has been a very difficult first month for the fledgling Trump administration. To describe the situation as chaos, bedlam, dysfunction -- whatever term you want to use to describe the situation in the White House -- is not hyperbole, alternative facts, or fake news. It is reality.

David Cohen

The level and intensity of the chaos within the West Wing is unprecedented in the modern era. Unfortunately for Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, much of the responsibility for bringing order to the West Wing rests with him -- the administrative equivalent of taming a pride of circus lions with neither chair nor whip.

The White House chief of staff position is perhaps the most difficult in the US government and often viewed by those who have served as thankless. James Baker, Ronald Reagan's first chief who is heralded by most of his contemporaries as the most effective chief of staff in history, calls the position " the worst job in Washington ."

Complicating matters is the fact that the chief's responsibilities change at the mercy of the boss -- the president. As John Sununu, chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush, counsels: "the role of a Chief of Staff is whatever the President wants that role to be ."

Adapting to the president's wishes and sometimes shifting set of parameters would be hard enough when working for a typical president -- and Donald Trump is hardly typical. His notoriously undisciplined behavior (and social media habits), famously thin-skinned reactions, ignorance of the basics of public policy and unwillingness to be handled by subordinates, make Reince Priebus' job that much more challenging.