In this Feb. 27, 2018 photo, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump's closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington. Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's most loyal aides, is resigning. In a statement, the president praises Hicks for her work over the last three years. He says he "will miss having her by my side." The news comes a day after Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trump's campaign and Russia. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
March 02, 2018 - 5:08 AM
WASHINGTON - The Latest on staffing upheaval at the White House (all times local):
8 a.m.
The White House press secretary says President Donald Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, isn't leaving his job.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" that "Gen. McMaster isn't going anywhere," despite reports that he's joining the throng of advisers departing the administration. The president, she said Friday, thinks McMaster is doing a "great job."
Sanders said White House communications director Hope Hicks is leaving to "maybe take a little bit of a break and have some time for herself."
As for talk of a White House in upheaval, Sanders pointed out the tax cuts passed late last year: "If they want to call it chaos, fine, but we call it success and productivity and we're going to keep plugging along."
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12:20 a.m.
The White House has been rattled by two weeks of muddled messages, departures and spitting matches between the president and his own top officials. Now Donald Trump is facing a shrinking circle of trusted advisers and a staff that's grim about any prospect of a reset.
Even by the standards of Trump's often chaotic administration, the announcement of Hope Hicks' imminent exit spread new levels of anxiety across the West Wing and cracked open disputes that had been building. One of Trump's most loyal and longest-serving aides, his director of communications often served as human buffer between the unpredictable president and the business of government.
Hicks' departure comes as special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation appears to be circling the Oval Office.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018