White House Insists There Are No Warring Factions

New Yorker: “Most modern White Houses have had a strong chief of staff who could limit the influence of other senior advisers by controlling their access to the President and insisting they use a formal process to set policy. But Trump has created a top-heavy staff in which Bannon, Priebus, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and several others all seem to have easy access to a President who, especially on issues that he is unfamiliar with, is famously susceptible to persuasion. Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter both used this structure, known as ‘spokes of the wheel,’ which proved to be disastrous, because it created warring factions that fought for turf.”

Washington Post: “News reports have depicted Trump’s West Wing as two warring factions, pitting Bannon and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller against Priebus and his cohort of deputies. But top officials rejected that portrayal, saying they spend much of their time working collaboratively — whether in Priebus’s spacious corner office, where he keeps a fire crackling, or in the Oval Office with the president.”