White House payroll increases as Trump investigations multiply: NPR

Faced with a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats who issue requests for documents and subpoenas, President Trump's attorney's office at the White House has increased his payroll by nearly $ 25,000. one-third reveal new documents.

From 2018 to 2019, the council office added 10 people.

"I'm not surprised by the increase in the number of lawyers in the lawyers' office after the 2018 elections," said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, head of personnel and staff turnover at the White House. the Brookings Institution.

The White House was clearly preparing for investigations, Tenpas said. Pat Cipollone replaced Don McGahn as a White House lawyer last December, before hiring other attorneys.

"By the time they started getting ready, they did not know the result of the Mueller report, which could have spurred even more hiring," Tenpas said.

This is part of the overall growth in the number of people working at the White House and their pay.

In a congressional report released last week, the White House detailed the salaries and titles of the 418 staff working under Trump. This is a snapshot published once a year, but it sheds light on trends in recruitment to the White House.

The Trump White House is touted for its relatively low numbers of staff and staff, which were lower than those of the Obama administration, to overshadow the amount spent on staff salaries in the last year of the mandate d & # 39; Obama. The press secretary at the time, Sean Spicer, told NPR in 2017 that the small operation located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. at that time was the result of "trying to give taxpayers the best return."

In the past year, 44 new positions have been added to White House staff, and just about everyone has had a salary increase. There are even fewer people working at the Trump White House than Obama, but the combined salaries amount to $ 41.3 million, a little more than last year.

The average salary of Trump White House employees is $ 99,000, which is significantly higher than the salaries of the Obama years, even with inflation in mind. This is despite Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, two of Trump's key collaborators and family members, who continue to work without pay in their government functions.

"President Trump has assembled an incredible team at the White House and the entire federal government who, despite 93% negative media coverage, has had undeniable success," said the spokesperson for the House. Blanche, Judd Deere, about changes to payroll.

The salary increases of almost all White House employees, including the highest paid employees, have contributed to this increase in spending. In the first two years of Trump's work, no White House employee earned more than $ 179,700. Today, these same advisors – think of the president's assistants such as Stephanie Grisham, Kellyanne Conway, John Bolton and Larry Kudlow – earn $ 183,000.

The two highest paid aides are Mick Mulvaney, the White House acting chief of staff ($ 203,500) and his chief deputy John Czwartacki ($ 239,595). They are better paid than anyone since they are technically temporarily assigned to the White House by other areas of government.

Of course, the high turnover of the Trump White House means that not all senior staff members were there to witness these increases. Of those who earn the maximum salary, only half are in the White House since 2017.

"No matter how you cut the data, its sales figure is out of the charts," Tenpas said.