Trump communications chief Dubke leaving: White House

Bloomberg

A top White House official announced his resignation on Tuesday after less than three months on the job, a dire start to President Donald Trump’s first week back in Washington following a nine-day trip overseas.
“It has been my great honor to serve President Trump and this administration,” Communications Director Mike Dubke said in a statement after Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News that he’d “expressed his desire to leave the White House.”
Dubke was one of the few senior White House officials without roots in Trump’s presidential campaign. He was hired on March 6 to help right a press operation that got off to a shaky start. But Trump’s public relations staff have never found their footing as they’ve tried to manage both a president prone to making his own news via Twitter and a relentless series of reports on his campaign’s ties to the Russian government and the Trump family’s business interests.
“We appreciate Mike and are very grateful for his service to President Trump and our country,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said in a statement. “Mike tendered his resignation just before the president’s historic international trip and offered to remain onboard until a transition is concluded. Mike will assist with the transition and be a strong advocate for the president and the president’s policies moving forward.”
Trump has grown increasingly frustrated by coverage of his administration, regularly tweeting his displeasure at news reports.
“It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” Trump tweeted Sunday.
“Russian officials must be laughing at the U.S. & how a lame excuse for why the Dems lost the election has taken over the Fake News,” he added on Tuesday.
Conway insisted that Dubke’s departure was not part of a broader overhaul in the West Wing. “In terms of staff shakeups, I always read things that simply aren’t true,” Conway said. “I work here every day. It’s much more collaborative than people realize.”