The Contemporary Presidency Energy or Chaos? Turnover at the Top of President Trump’s White House

Abstract

The group of approximately two dozen White House staff titled “assistant to the president” form a president’s core leadership team, making turnover at this level particularly important for the stability and direction of the presidential decision‐making process. Among the assistants to the president group, President Donald Trump’s White House had the highest turnover of top‐ranked staff experienced by any recent president. At 20 months, two‐thirds of assistants appointed by President Trump in his first year in office left or announced their imminent departure. That level of turnover led to leadership changes in the dozen White House offices that are key to the processing of presidential decisions; to the policies a chief executive develops, initiates, and implements; and to those units charged with managing a president’s relationships with those outside of the administration. Without a team working together, it is difficult for a president’s staff to coordinate its plans and work as well as develop and articulate commonly shared presidential priorities and goals.