The following article by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas was posted on the Washington Post website January 16, 2018:
Every new president loses top staff during the administration’s first year in office. Political scientists have long noted that the skills needed to campaign are strikingly different from those needed to govern. And adjusting to Washington, D.C., norms — and the press scrutiny that comes with presidential power — has a steep learning curve, especially for those without government experience.
Compared to President Trump’s five predecessors, however, the Trump White House has seen a record level of staff turnover amid truly unusual circumstances.
Here’s what we can conclude about White House turnover during Trump’s first year in office.
This is how I measured top-level staff turnover
Between 1981 and 2015, National Journal writers compiled lists of presidential staffers deemed to be the most influential working within the executive office of the president and the White House for each presidential administration, with one each in 1981, 1989, 1993, 2001 and 2009 for a total of five. Let’s call these top staffers the “A Team.” I used use the old National Journal lists to compare Trump staff turnover to that of previous presidents. (Note: These are in print, not online.) Continue reading “Trump set a record for White House staff turnover in the first year”