Looking Like a Liar or a Fool’: What It Means to Work for Trump -<br />By GLENN THRUSH and MAGGIE HABERMANMAY 12, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — President Trump has never shown any reluctance to sacrifice a surrogate to serve a short-term political need, so he apparently did not think<br />twice this week about exposing a series of staff members to ridicule as he repeatedly shifted his explanation for firing James B. Comey, the F. B.I.<br />“The most hazardous duty in Washington these days is<br />that of Trump surrogate because the president constantly undercuts the statements of his own people,” said David Axelrod, a communications and messaging adviser to President Barack Obama.<br />Mr. Spicer’s blustery style mimics Mr. Trump’s, but people close to both men said he has not developed an especially close relationship with the president<br />and has failed to use the self-protective tools that savvier Trump aides have adopted.<br />On Friday, Mr. Spicer prefaced much of what he said at the daily briefing with, “The president’s statement.”<br />And while Mr. Trump has raised the Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle to allies as a possible press secretary, he has spent several hours with Mr. Spicer this week, praising his television “ratings” during the briefings.<br />Mr. Trump is growing increasingly dissatisfied with the performance of his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; the communications director, Michael Dubke;<br />and Mr. Spicer, a Priebus ally, according to a half-dozen West Wing officials who said the president was considering the most far-reaching shake-up of his already tumultuous term.
