Trump advisers quietly begin thinking about ‘life after Sarah’

The press secretary says she has no plans to step down, but a shortlist of potential replacements is starting to take shape.

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says publicly that she has no plans to leave the administration, but that hasn’t stopped some people close to President Donald Trump from contemplating “life after Sarah.”

Planning for her eventual exit is on the minds of many Trump advisers and staff members, according to interviews with nearly a dozen current and former administration officials and others close to the president.

Bill Shine, the newly appointed White House deputy chief of staff for communications, has quietly begun asking friends and associates for their opinions about who could succeed Sanders if she leaves in the coming months, according to two people familiar with those conversations.

Shine, in a brief interview, denied having such conversations. “I have not had a meeting or discussion about this,” he said last week, noting he had been on the job for only a short time. Shine praised Sanders and called her a “total team player.”

Although no decisions have been made about successors, an unofficial shortlist is already emerging among Trump White House alumni, former campaign aides and other backers of the president.

At the top of the list is Heather Nauert, the current State Department spokeswoman and former Fox News host. Nauert has impressed White House aides with her steady performances in Foggy Bottom. Multiple people close to the White House pointed out that Nauert remained in Trump’s good graces even when the president soured on former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Nauert’s Fox News pedigree, paired with her close relationship with Trump and her ability to stay on message and remain calm under pressure, makes her a “no-brainer” for the job, according to one person close to the White House. Nauert, who did not respond to a request for comment, has told associates that she’s unsure whether she would want the job, but people who know her believe she’d take it if asked.

Other possibilities include Bill Hemmer, a Fox News reporter; Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who recently left the network to join a pro-Trump outside group; Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh, who worked closely with the White House on its overhaul of the tax code and used to be a Fox News contributor; and White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah.

Guilfoyle is dating Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., a fact that could complicate her appointment as press secretary, and several associates of the president said she is unlikely to get the job.

“There will be people who will want the job,” said former George W. Bush chief of staff Andrew Card. “The best way to get the job is not to apply.”

The prospect of losing Sanders, who is widely liked in the White House and is seen by her colleagues as a deft communicator and defender of the president, has some close to Trump in panic mode, worrying that it’ll be difficult to find a suitable replacement who can stand up to withering scrutiny from the public.

“Who would want that job?” one former administration official asked, summing up the feelings of many in Washington, who note that being the public face of Trump’s presidency can be a thankless and frequently impossible task.

At the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April, the featured comedian singled out Sanders — who was sitting on the stage — as someone who “burns facts,” and more recently, she and her family were asked to leave a Virginia restaurant because the staff disagreed so strongly with Trump’s policies.

CBS News reported last month that Sanders, one of the few top officials who started with Trump in January 2017 and still remains in the West Wing, had told friends she expects to leave by the end of the year after serving as a top official since the start of the administration. Sanders, for her part, pushed back strongly on that report and has subsequently told colleagues that she has no current plans to resign. Sanders’ colleagues don’t believe she will step down anytime soon, and they insist that if she does, it’ll likely be after the midterms and on her own terms, not in response to a specific event.

Sanders declined to comment on the record for this story.

White House aides and Republicans close to the White House insist Shine does not want to push out Sanders, who has become a trusted ally of Trump’s in recent months — but pointed out that it’s good practice to start winnowing down a shortlist early.

“I’m proud that they are thinking about this early on and not getting jammed at the end,” said one veteran GOP communications strategist.

The topic of Sanders’ future is deeply sensitive in the West Wing, where aides don’t want to risk tainting their relationship with the press secretary by openly discussing her potential replacements.

The transition to a new press secretary is seen as the first major test of Shine’s tenure at the White House. One Republican who has spoken to multiple people in the White House said Shine wants to be prepared to have an orderly changeover.

Shine and others in the White House want a press secretary in the mold of the late Tony Snow, a former Fox News host who served as President George W. Bush’s lead spokesman, the Republican said. As a former journalist, Snow had the respect of many in the briefing room but still had the ability to aggressively counter reporters.

Others close to the process said they believe Shine will draw on his Fox News Rolodex when looking for candidates, adding that the White House wants someone who understands the mechanics of dealing with the press, has some degree of experience and credibility, has a good relationship with Trump and looks the part.

Trump himself, who frequently critiques his own press team and sees himself as a master communicator, is expected to play a central role in picking the next press secretary.

In the aftermath of the departure of White House communications director Hope Hicks, who left a gaping hole at the top of Trump’s team when she stepped down earlier this year, some in the West Wing have come to believe that they have to be prepared for the eventual departure of Sanders, who has emerged as one of the administration’s most high-profile public faces, according to another Republican close to the White House.

“Bill is looking for someone to push back aggressively without looking like Sean,” the Republican said, referring to former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who lacked credibility with reporters.