Fellow members of the GOP are exhibiting zero compassion for former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who was ousted by President Donald Trump (or maybe he resigned — no one seems to know for sure). This past week has seen the White House making major personnel changes.
Priebus was replaced by former DHS chief, retired general John Kelly. The first thing Kelly did was oust Trump’s newly hired Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted a whopping ten days in that position. Scaramucci created strife and chaos from his first day, and signed his own ticket out with a blistering interview in The New Yorker in which he said of Priebus:
“Reince is a f*cking paranoid schizophrenic.”
Priebus ended his stint at the White House with a seeming sense of relief. It has been reported extensively that he was a frequent target for Trump’s bullying behavior. In a Politico article, Josh Dawsey and Eliana Johnson outlined a small portion of the humiliation Priebus suffered under Trump:
“Trump never seemed to fully trust Priebus, who called for him to drop out of the presidential race after the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape emerged in October, even recalling the episode in front of senators at the White House in March. And he never fully empowered him, softly undermining him by calling him ‘Reince-y’ and making strange asides, officials said. At one point, he told associates that Priebus would make a good car salesman. At another, he mocked him for expressing excitement when he spotted his house from Air Force One, flying over Wisconsin.”
The only semi-sympathetic voice weighing in on Priebus’ departure was Charlie Sykes, conservative MSNBC commentator, who has known Priebus for years and had this to say:
“I see him as kind of a tragic figure. What began as a matter of duty on his part—the decision to go all-in on Trump—ended with this scorchingly obscene humiliation. It’s sad, but it’s the result of choices he made — it’s not like he wasn’t warned.”
Priebus seemed to be Trump’s target for a lot of demeaning treatment. As reported in the Washington Post, Trump had Priebus kill a fly during a staff meeting:
“At one point, during a meeting in the oval office, a fly began buzzing overhead. As the fly continued to circle, Trump summoned his chief of staff and tasked him with killing the insect, according to someone familiar with the incident.”
Although he never complained, sources close to Priebus let the world know how he felt:
“Allies to Priebus said he told them he had resigned because the internal chaos had become ‘unsustainable’ and that he felt demeaned by the president’s treatment of him.”
David French, Senior Writer at the National Review and conservative anti-Trump crusader tweeted his lack of pity on Friday:
No one should be permitted to rewrite history. Reince was tireless in defending, excusing, empowering, and enabling Trump.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) July 29, 2017
Former RNC Chair Michael Steele said of Priebus’ departure from the limelight:
“This is the bed Reince has been making for himself since he was my general counsel. He’s a guy who’s always positioning himself for the next thing. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it?”
Nothing has been said about what Priebus plans for the future. We imagine he will sit around for a bit and try to deal with the self-inflicted trauma of being a sell-out. He made a deal with the devil to get ahead and paid the price when the hell-hounds came calling.
Featured image from Twitter.
