White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated in a briefing that recent rumors about President Donald Trump’s two top advisers not getting along are being “overblown” by the various media outlets.
It was reported that Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, have been fighting and that their relationship had seriously deteriorated.
The following excerpt from a New York Times article shows how the media is portraying the White House’s problems.
“The schism within Mr. Trump’s perpetually fractious White House has grown in recent weeks, fueled by personality, ideology and ambition. At its core are Mr. Bannon, the edgy, nationalist bomb-thrower suddenly in the seat of power, and Mr. Kushner, the polished, boyish-looking scion of New Jersey and New York real estate. Even as Mr. Kushner’s portfolio of responsibilities has been expanding, Mr. Bannon’s in recent days has shrunk with the loss of a national security post.
The escalating feud, though, goes beyond mere West Wing melodrama, the sort of who’s-up-and-who’s-down scorekeeping that typically consumes Washington. Instead, it reflects a larger struggle to guide the direction of the Trump presidency, played out in disagreements over the policies Mr. Trump should pursue, the people he should hire and the image he should put forward to the American people.”
During the press briefing, CBS White House correspondent raised a question regarding reports of the worsening relationship between Kushner and Bannon.
“There’s a lot of stuff that was overblown about this, that makes it out into the media sometimes and gets a little more sensational than it truly is,” Spicer replied.
Spicer further said that Trump was quite happy with the “strong foreign policy wins,” last week. Hinting at the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the successful missile strike on Syria.
“I think that he recognizes that sometimes some of this spills over, these policy differences and discussions, and he’s made sure that the focus stays on advancing the agenda,” Spicer said.
However, Spicer also mentioned that President Trump believes all his staff members should be able to work out their differences, whether personal or on certain policies, behind closed doors, without the media being able to criticize anything.
However, Spicer said that Trump believes his staff should be able to hash out their differences on policies and personal issues behind closed doors, without the media critiquing their differences.