Story highlights
Steve Bannon favors the restructuring with Miller in a communications role
Chief of staff John Kelly is eyeing his former Homeland Security spokesperson, David Lapan
White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller is being considered for an elevated communications role, a White House official tells CNN.
There are internal discussions that Miller could be elevated to such a role in addition to his current position as an adviser. White House chief strategist Steve Bannon favors the restructuring, but Miller might not necessarily have the title of communications director, the official said.
Meanwhile, CNN has reported that President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff, John Kelly, is eyeing his former Homeland Security spokesperson, David Lapan, for the role. Kelly ousted Anthony Scaramucci, who officially held the communications position for five days but was named to the post several days earlier, on Monday.
Two high-level administration sources told CNNMoney that Lapan, who has worked with Kelly for over a decade, is at the top of a short list to serve as the White House’s top official on messaging and communications.
Scaramucci was forced to vacate his communications director role following Kelly’s swearing in as chief of staff. Kelly delivered the news in a face-to-face meeting with Scaramucci in his office, two people familiar with the sudden turn of events on Monday said, making getting Scaramucci out of the White House one of Kelly’s first official acts as chief of staff.
“He had no plans to resign before that,” a person who talked to Scaramucci on Monday morning said.
A White House official said Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who is known for his fastidious nature, wanted Scaramucci removed from his new role as the communications director because he did not think he was disciplined and had burned his credibility after a salacious interview he gave The New Yorker magazine.
