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![President Donald Trump threw a wrench into the West Wing with his press secretary pick, a longtime White House correspondent said.
Jonathan Lemire, a co-host on MS NOW’s Morning Joe and staff writer for The Atlantic, said the president’s decision to “blindside” one of his top aides by installing Katie Zacharia as press secretary unleashed Trump 1.0-era infighting.
“The chief of staff was blindsided by this pick,” he said on Thursday. “Susie Wiles didn't know that President Trump was gonna offer this job to the new press secretary. And it's emblematic of where they are right now: they seem rudderless and wildly off message.”
Trump, 80, announced on Truth Social last week that it was his “great honor” to have appointed Zacharia, 41, as press secretary. But insiders quickly leaked to the Daily Mail that the decision blindsided Wiles, his “ice maiden” chief of staff.
Wiles, 69, had a different pick in mind: Scott Jennings, the conservative commentator for CNN.
“I think that it's so reminiscent of Trump 1.0 that there's the infighting, the backstabbing, suddenly the leaks to knife a colleague that they don't like or are jealous of. That wasn't happening in the first year or so of this term,” Lemire said.
“I think we are seeing this is what [happens] when the wheels come off. People start either looking for the exits or jockeying for themselves,” he continued. “And I think what we're gonna see starting real soon, though, there's gonna be people who want to stay in the administration because they wanna have government lawyers for what's coming in terms of the investigations from the House.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sources previously told the Daily Beast that Wiles was in the loop as Trump made his pick for press secretary.
“At no point was Wiles in the dark or the deciding factor. It was the president’s pick,” they said.
Zacharia, for her part, earlier told the Beast that she was not part of any rift.
“I don’t belong to any camp—I am in President Trump’s corner and will continue to amplify his message as I have done for many years prior to my appointment,” she said before her disastrous debut on Tuesday.
But cracks in Trump and Wiles’ once-solid relationship continue to show. On Thursday, Politico reported that the president has been calling up allies to get their thoughts on his chief of staff.
Though some have told Trump that they felt “burned” by the ice maiden, Trump denied tensions with his longtime enforcer.
“TOTAL FAKE NEWS Politico doesn’t care about facts, integrity, or honest journalism — it’s why I kicked them out of the White House!” he told the outlet. “Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff — there is a reason for that. She has been with me since the beginning, is my trusted advisor, and has my COMPLETE confidence. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”](https://media.thedailybeast.com/resizer/v2/BIMMRF7YVRG6PD2S43ONTIYYAA.JPG?auth=342b26114831097768af45be7016635387672b2ee33ad3d4882b41ba528e25d9&width=1600&height=1600&focal=901%2C901)
HOT AND COLD