January 10, 2018

“White House aides have been told to decide before the end of January whether they intend to leave the administration or stay through the November midterm elections, an official said, a deadline intended to help bring a sense of order to an anticipated staffing exodus,” CNN reports.

“Several of Trump’s top advisers are still weighing whether to leave the administration at the one-year mark. Others appear likely to depart in the coming weeks. Two of the most senior officials who are on the potential departure list are Don McGahn, the White House counsel, and HR McMaster, the national security adviser. The President, like with many of his advisers, has aired frustrations openly with both men. But it’s far from certain whether either official will leave.”

Washington Post: “Bannon has told associates he plans to focus on creating a political operation in 2018, the person said, and is banking that Trump eventually will need him again and that congressional Republican leaders will eventually desert the president.”

New York Times: “Numerous people who have worked with Mr. Bannon over the past few months said that his attitude lately had grown more imperious and aloof than normal. And his outward lack of any emotion about his messy public breach with the president and the Mercer family struck some not as the calloused indifference of a political operative but as nihilistic.”