US Politics: New Communications Director anyone?

By Samantha Sharp On June 1, 2017 0 Comment

As I was looking at the Atlantic’s newsfeed last night in bed, I suddenly burst out laughing. They had published something from BuzzFeed about the resignation of Trump’s Communications Director, Mike Dubke, which was formally announced on Tuesday this week. (Dubke actually resigned on 18th May but stayed on until Trump returned from his first overseas trip with Melania).

I’ve never heard of him. What did he do?

Unlike Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who takes more of an upfront role, the role of Communications Director tends to be more behind the scenes. But it’s not an easy job if you’re working under someone who thinks they know better.

‘The best communications director in the business is no match for a boss who thinks they know better, changes their mind and struggles with the truth. This is an impossible job and no amount of compensation in the world would make it worth taking’.

Katie Packer Beeson, friend of Dubke and Republican strategist quoted in The Atlantic

What did the resignation letter say?

‘Personal reasons’.

And why did it make me laugh?

Well the BuzzFeed article from 30th May says that they spoke with some ’20 Republican communicators and operatives’, nearly all of whom have admitted it’s not a job they’d be keen to take on themselves. After the initial ‘Hell no’ followed by laughter, ‘career suicide’ was one phrase that followed. But the best one, and the one that made me burst out laughing, was this one:

‘That’s like asking someone who just witnessed a horrific bungee jumping accident whether they would like to go next’.

Nothing further from me on this one but I’ve added this to my ‘Inspirations’ folder as that line is an ‘inspiration’. I haven’t laughed that much in ages. Neither has my husband come to think of it.

Sources:

Here is the BuzzFeed article, 30.5.17:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/henrygomez/no-one-wants-the-big-white-house-job-that-just-opened-up?utm_term=.iaKy1D3YV#.ieDJ4Bv0y

The Atlantic, ‘The Impossible Job of Speaking for Trump’, 30.5.17:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/the-impossible-job-of-speaking-for-trump/528576/

The BBC on Dubke’s resignation, 30.5.17:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40090865