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The addition of Bill Shine to the White House team would come at a time when the administration has lost senior executives and is having trouble recruiting new talent. | Mark Lennihan / AP Photo
The arrival of Bill Shine, the former right-hand man of Roger Ailes and Sean Hannity's confidante, also entails some risks.
The fox is at the White House.
President Donald Trump is expected to engage former Fox News director, Bill Shine, as director of communications, the latest sign of the network's growing influence on the West Wing. But some of the president's allies fear that he will put forward a Me Too movement target that will focus more attention on the President's own problems with women.
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Shine, who has been for years the right arm of former Fox chief Roger Ailes, has been ousted from the network for his handling of badual harbadment complaints. The former producer met with Trump on Wednesday to discuss the role, according to several people familiar with the process.
The post was recently filled by Hope Hicks, who left in March and enjoyed almost constant – if not always influential – access to the president. This is a crucial role for the message-driven president, who continues to blame many of the White House crises in his communications team and their inability to shape the narrative.
In Shine, Trump would get a former executive with experience of directly touching his political base: the millions of viewers who watch Fox's prime time shows every night. He would also win a close confidante from the anchor of Fox Sean Hannity, the president's most vigorous promoter on television.
"He has already outsourced a lot of his communications to Fox News," said a Republican close to the White House. "He has an extremely close relationship with Hannity, so he'll put the guy from Hannity in there."
But the big question that will follow Shine in the White House, the Allies said, is whether women will move forward to relitaliser how he handled the claims of badual harbadment at Fox News.
"Nobody knows what's the answer to this X factor," said another Trump ally.
Fox News collaborator Julie Roginsky filed a lawsuit against Shine last year, accusing her of failing to investigate multiple harbadment charges against Ailes that she was charged with. directly reported. A second former Fox employee accused him in a lawsuit of helping to arrange a secret meeting with Wings while booking his trip.
This may be less of a concern for his new boss, said the Republican close to the White House. "For Trump, these are temporary positions," said the source, noting that Trump wants a change of communication now and will spill over later.
At Fox, the sources said, Shine excelled at cultivating a relationship with Ailes by acting as his "fixator", a role that Trump himself found worthwhile – using his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in the same way – but that It is currently missing.
Although the post has been vacant for months, the president himself has largely played this role. Councilor Kellyanne Conway also played a greater role in formulating the communication strategy. And Mercedes Schlapp, an ally of Chief of Staff John Kelly, is positioned as one of the most experienced people in the team who would be the ideal person for the concert. But she failed to win the president's trust.
Meanwhile, the White House has sometimes struggled to help shape his message before Trump tweets his unfiltered thoughts without consulting his best badistants.
In the past, family members like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have pushed their own candidates for work, with mixed results: Anthony Scaramucci, famous, has held the position for 11 days laced obscenity. But this time, several sources familiar with the process said, Trump led the research on his own, consulting primarily with external consultants like Hannity.
Trump flirted with the idea of bringing Fox News' talents to the White House before, interviewing Laura Ingraham to be his press secretary shortly after his inauguration and Judge Jeanine Pirro for a position at the Ministry of Justice. Justice, for example. Another Fox News host, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is now out with Donald Trump, Jr., briefly made a play for the press secretary. Heather Nauert, former anchor of Fox News, is now a Communications Officer in the State Department.
In recent months, Trump has hosted Hannity and Shine at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida resort, where Shine has cultivated a personal relationship with the president.
The choice also underscores how closely Trump follows the news of cable and how committed he is to the coverage of his own presidency. The president often phones Fox hosts to suggest cover angles or to congratulate them for saying good things about him.
Tweets highlighting the coverage offered by the morning news show, Fox and Friends, have become a daily ritual.
"The deepest question of our time: was there a conspiracy within the Justice Department of Obama and the FBI to prevent Donald Trump from becoming President of the United States and Strzok at the heart of the conspiracy?" he tweeted on Tuesday morning, quoting Fox News forensic badyst Andrew Napolitano.
Shine discussed with the idea of joining the administration before withdrawing from consideration. A White House official confirmed that Shine's name is back in the mix for the post but said that there was no official announcement yet to make.
The arrival of Shine as part of the White House team will come as the administration loses staff and will have difficulty recruiting new talent. Trump's allies are worried about the departure of Chief of Staff John Kelly and the potential loss of press secretary Sarah Sanders, perhaps by the end of the year. .
Shine coming in, the allies said, is a sign of the bunker mentality that badailed the White House. "Trump imagines what better way to give the media a crush," said the Republican close to the White House, "while choosing someone they hate."
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