On Friday, Sean Spicer, the spokesman for United States President Donald Trump, resigned from the White House staff to bring to an end six turbulent months as the public voice for the new administration. Spicer’s position was always a difficult one, attempting to shape public perceptions of an administration that has rewritten the rules on the way the Oval Office does business. But should his resignation really be a surprise or be considered as a body blow to Trump?
From the very outset, from the time that the billionaire property tycoon announced his candidacy, Trump has always played the game of politics by his own rules. From the very outset, his brash statements and straight-talking style proved polarising. Those who like him, like him a lot — and in enough numbers to first win the Republican nomination and then take the presidency itself.
The business of politics in Washington generates the politics of business, one where the media, lobbyists, lawyers, partisan party apparatchiks and administration officials and hangers-on vie with the federal government to run the world’s largest economy and the most-powerful military, as well as projecting the capital’s power, thinking and wealth across America and around the world. Trump was an outsider to this world, and he remains so today, with his way of doing business running contrary to the established and establishment way of doing politics.
Spicer’s job was to try and bridge the dichotomy that exists between Trump and his non-conventional team of White House advisers and everyone else. It was a thankless job, but one that wasn’t made any easier by Spicer’s combative and confrontational style against a press corps pressing for access and answers. But Trump’s two thumbs on Twitter did Spicer no favours either.
