Mediaboss Marketing

President Trump tweeted July 28 that his homeland security secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, is replacing Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff. (Victoria Walker,Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The ouster (or resignation, depending on whom you listen to) of Reince Priebus as President Trumps chief of staff last week served as another tug of the crowbar splitting Trump away from the party he ostensibly leads. Priebus came to the White House from the Republican Partys senior-most position; his departure, coupled with the departure of Sean Spicer as press secretary, means that Trumps administration is without two of its strongest ties to the Republican National Committee.

And, as Tim Alberta noted in an article for Politico over the weekend, it means that the administration hardly has strong ties to the party at all. Alberta writes:

Looking around Trumps inner circle, there is communications director Anthony Scaramucci, a political novice who in the past donated to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who used Breitbart to try and burn the Republican Party to the ground; National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, a lifelong Democrat; director of strategic communication Hope Hicks, who has zero history with GOP politics; and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, a pair of self-professed Manhattan progressives.

Of Trumps closest advisers, Alberta adds, only Mike Pence has any association with the Republican Party.

Contrast that with July 2009, when President Barack Obama was building out his team. His interim communications director was Anita Dunn, whod worked in Democratic politics for years. Senior adviser David Axelrod had done the same. His National Economic Council director was Larry Summers, whod served as treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. Adviser Valerie Jarrett had worked for Democratic Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, which is how she knew the Obamas.

But the relative distance between Trumps team and the GOP goes a bit further than that. We reviewed his and Obamas Cabinet members at this point in each presidents first term. Obamas team had a greater percentage of lifelong Democrats than Trumps team doeslifelong Republicans. Obama hadmore staffers whohad never given to the opposing party. And Obamas team had more people with experience in elected office, federal appointments or working for Democratic Party organizations than did Trump.

Our full analysis by person:

Even the Obamastaffers without experience at the federal level often had experience at the state level, including EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan. Several had experience or appointments under Republican presidents.

To Albertas point, though, Trumps most senior advisers lack ties to the GOP, save Pence. This was hugely beneficial to Trump on the campaign trail, allowing him to position himself as an outsider unbeholden to the party that provided his glide path to the presidency. In office, though, its less helpful. Trump now has no one in his inner circle who knows how to twist arms to get things done on Capitol Hill. (Pences efforts in that regard, including a midnight visit to the Senate floor last week in hopes of castingthe tiebreaking vote on a Senate health-care measure, havenot proved very effective.) The input Trumpreceives from his senior team will lack the perspective of the party he leads.

Save for passing legislation a big exception there may be a plus side to this distance. Trump ran as the populist everyman whowould deliver on all of the things that Americans say they want but which never seem to happen in Congress. If Trump were to start trying to effect change that crosses party lines and incorporates the concerns of Democrats as well as Republicans, he might have some success.

But thats not really the space Trump occupies. His opposition to the party doesnt stem from his being a centrist, bridging the gap between left and right. Hehas repeatedly shown that his opposition is like Bannons: much further to the right than the party mainstream is mostly willing to go. Trump isthe most successful Fox News-watching tea partyer in American political history, and thats why hes distant from the rest of the party.

The consolation for Republicans? That second chart, showing how, outside of Trumps inner circle, there are a lot of party stalwarts who are in positions to affect the functioning of the executive branch. Not as robustly partisan as Obamas 2009 White House, but at least Trumps Cabinet is friendlier to the GOP than is the West Wing.

See more here:
Here's how untethered the Trump administration is from the Republican Party - Washington Post