Tang the Conqueror has given his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus three weeks to "fix the White House" or he's fired, which begs the question "Can Priebus start by having Trump resign?"
President Donald Trump has set a deadline of July 4 for a shakeup of the White House that could include removing Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, according to two administration officials and three outside advisers familiar with the matter.
While Trump has set deadlines for staff changes before, only to let them pass without pulling the trigger, the president is under more scrutiny than ever regarding the sprawling Russia investigation, which is intensifying the pressure on his White House team.
Days after his return from his first foreign trip late last month, Trump berated Priebus in the Oval Office in front of his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and deputy campaign manager David Bossie for the dysfunction in the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversation.
Trump had been mulling bringing on Bossie as his deputy White House chief of staff and Lewandowski as a White House senior adviser with a portfolio that includes Russia, but told the two at that meeting that they would not be joining the White House until Priebus had a fair chance to clean up shop, according to the sources.
"I'm giving you until July 4," Trump said, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.
"I don't want them to come into this mess. If I'm going to clean house, they will come in as fresh blood."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer, in a statement on Sunday, refuted the idea that Priebus is facing a July 4 deadline. "Whoever is saying that is either a liar or out of the loop," Spicer said.
The thing is nobody believes Trump is actually going to do this, because nobody believes Priebus can "clean up" anything in the White House without duct taping Trump's hands together for the next year so that he can't use Twitter for starters. The biggest non-secret in DC is that Priebus is about as responsible for the problems in the Trump regime as Lex Luthor's accountant is for his failing to beat Superman.
Once Trump realizes the story makes him look bad for makling the threat and even worse if he carries through with it, this will evaporate like so many other of his tantrums. Three weeks after all is a long time for talking Trump out of something (just ask the Saudis, or Spicer, still gainfully employed.)
Count on it.
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