White House a high-speed revolving door with 78 percent of 'A-team' positions turned over at least once under Trump
A new study has found that the top echelons of the Trump administration recorded a turnover in 78 percent of the positions, making the White House a high-speed revolving door.
According to the research conducted by the Brookings Institution, 31 percent of those White House "A-Team" jobs have turned over more than once, NBC News reports.
"It's historic, it's unprecedented, it's off the charts," Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who authored the study, told the outlet. "I've never seen this kind of turnover before."
President Donald Trump's rate of change has surpassed "all of his predecessors who served four-year terms" in his first 32 months in office, she said. The study, which focused on the top 65 positions in the Executive Office of the President, including jobs like national security adviser, chief of staff, communications director, press secretary, and director of national intelligence, found that 51 of them have turned over since the former real estate mogul took office.
Furthermore, sixteen of those positions had turned over twice or more, according to the report. Earlier this month, national security adviser John Bolton departed from his role after becoming Trump's third pick for the job.
Michael Flynn, the president's first national security adviser, was forced to leave after he allegedly lied about contacts with Russia. He is currently awaiting sentencing for lying to the FBI during the controversial Trump Russia probe conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. H.R. McMaster, who succeeded him, left the job soon after so Bolton could take over.
Tenpas has studied White House staffing since the 1990s. According to her, the high rate of change is due to "the president himself." "In all of my studies, I've never seen a chief executive who fires staff more frequently and more publicly than President Trump. It's extraordinary," she commented.