With Priebus out, the Tales of White House Humiliation Begin to Emerge

In this Jan. 31, 2017, photo, Steve Bannon, chief White House strategist to President Donald Trump, left, and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus stand in the East Room of the White House in Washington before President Donald Trump arrived to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court. The Trump administration is playing down the significance of a National Security Council restructuring. But the president is treading new ground in making Bannon a regular at NSC meetings. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

It was Reince Priebus who cut the legs out from under the delegates at the 2016 RNC Convention in Cleveland.

It was Reince Priebus, who took an already cringeworthy set-up video of Cabinet members lavishing President Trump with praise in a round table setting, to a new level of groveling toady-ism.

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Finding out that for selling his soul for power, his reward was to be humiliated, then kicked into the gutter is oddly satisfying.

So how low did Priebus sink before Emperor Trump was through toying with him?

Only days after bringing in a new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, it became clear that Scaramucci’s job would not be to handle the flow of media, handle the press corps, or anything of that nature.

How could it be? He has no background in communications. He’s just another Wall Street hire (aka… Swamp Thing).

No, Scaramucci’s job was to be in-house entertainment.

Within hours of his hire, White House press secretary Sean Spicer turned in his resignation.

And with barely a week under his belt, Scaramucci’s hateful, profane tirade to Ryan Lizza, a reporter from the New Yorker was released.

White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Priebus were the main targets, with Priebus (who Scaramucci had previously accused of being a leaker) arguably getting the worst of it.

By the next day, Priebus was gone.

I brought you the report last night that Trump was said to be upset that Priebus didn’t fight back against Scaramucci. He even brought the two together on Air Force One, in what had to be an uncomfortable meeting, since the controversy over the comms director’s New Yorker interview had just broke and was still a hot-trending topic on social media and beyond.

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Last night, Priebus was even ordered to complete his walk of shame by letting Sean Hannity put him on display for his audience.

I believe, and the events bear it out, that Trump is using his staff for personal amusement, playing them against each other, giving them the opportunity to prove who is “most loyal” and he’s surrounding himself with the kind of cutthroats and lackeys who will do just that.

Priebus will grovel, obviously, but he won’t fight, so his usefulness was over.

We also shouldn’t forget that were it not for Priebus’ work as RNC chairman, Trump would likely not have gotten as far as he did.

So today, as if the past several days were not humiliation enough, there’s a new story to add to the pathetic ending of Reince Priebus’ career.

This particular incident is being shared by the Washington Post today:

A source told The Washington Post that once during an Oval Office meeting, a fly began buzzing around Trump’s head, distracting him. Trump eventually summoned Priebus and told him to kill the fly. As a senior White House staffer, the chief of staff would not ordinarily be tasked with such matters.

The Post reports that anecdote was just one way the relationship between Trump and Priebus became fractured by the end. Trump announced Priebus’ resignation on Friday night.

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I’m getting a serious Renfield vibe, here.

The Post story also goes on to point out that sources say the president never quite got over Priebus, as RNC Chairman, suggesting Trump drop out of the race, after the Access Hollywood tapes became public.

The official told the Post that Trump’s complaints about Priebus had ramped up in recent weeks.

“It reached a fever pitch of the president complaining about Reince to all of us,” the official said. “If we heard it once, we heard it 20 times in the last week — this erosion of confidence. The word was ‘weak’ — ‘weak,’ ‘weak,’ ‘weak.’ ‘Can’t get it done.’”

I feel pretty certain that more tales of Priebus’ weaselhood are out there, and I don’t feel too badly for him. He knew what Trump was when he worked so voraciously to force him on the nation.

Now reap it, Sir.

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