Karoline Leavitt stepped away from the press secretary position earlier this year.
Katie Zacharia was press secretary for about a week, but that changed after a White House briefing that critics panned. The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets also questioned whether Zacharia inflated her resume by claiming she was a lawyer when she did not pass the bar exam.
Speaking on American Family Radio (AFR)’s “Today’s Issues” program, former Trump campaign legal advisor Jenna Ellis pointed out that President Donald Trump’s direct-to-media style often makes the traditional press secretary position redundant.
“Even when I was working for Trump, everybody said that he’s his own best press secretary because he knows the issues, he knows his own mind better than any of us could guess... and so he really doesn't need one,” Ellis says.
Ellis noted that press briefings haven’t always been a daily must-have in past administration strategies, and taking a pause from the briefing room potentially removes an unnecessary political distraction.
Recalling her own time on the campaign trail, Ellis described how fast-paced Trump’s direct communication can be for his spokespeople.
“We would get up and exchange text messages at like five in the morning going, ‘All right, well, what did he tweet, guys? What are we discussing today?’” Ellis states.
Ellis said there would be times when she would walk out to a set of a major news network, and they’d give her a topic in advance.
“But then it was like, you know, cameras are rolling, and they go, ‘Well, you know, the president just came out and said, X, Y, Z... You’re the senior legal adviser on his campaign, what was his thinking on this?’ And I'm sitting there like ‘Like he told me,’” Ellis says.
While Trump frequently answers questions directly from reporters on the go, observers say any future briefing room role will likely require an experienced media veteran capable of keeping up with his constantly moving agenda.
