WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on
Sunday chose Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National
Committee and a loyal campaign adviser, to be his White House chief of
staff, turning to a Washington insider whose friendship with the House
speaker, Paul D. Ryan, could help secure early legislative victories.
In selecting Mr. Priebus, the
president-elect passed over Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing media
mogul who oversaw his presidential campaign. If Mr. Trump had appointed
Mr. Bannon, a fierce critic of the Republican establishment, it would
have signaled a continued disdain for a party that Mr. Trump fought
throughout his campaign.
Mr. Trump’s choice is certain to anger
some of his most conservative supporters, many of whom expect him to
battle the Washington establishment over issues like taxes, immigration,
trade, health care and the environment. They view Mr. Priebus as a deal
maker who will be too eager to push the new president toward
compromise.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, the
transition team said Mr. Bannon would serve as the chief strategist and
senior counselor in the White House. It emphasized that the two men
would work “as equal partners to transform the federal government.”
Mr. Bannon — the longtime chairman of
Breitbart News, a site known for its nationalist, racially charged,
conspiracy-laden coverage — is likely to serve as a conduit to the
populist right and conservative media outlets.
Breitbart News has accused President Obama of “importing more hating Muslims”; compared Planned Parenthood’s work to the Holocaust; called Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator, a “renegade Jew”; and advised female victims of online harassment to “just log off” and stop “screwing up the internet for men,” illustrating that point with a picture of a crying child.
The transition team appeared eager to
ease concerns among Mr. Trump’s most fervent supporters over the
selection of Mr. Priebus. To that end, the statement mentioned Mr.
Bannon first.
“We had a very successful partnership
on the campaign, one that led to victory,” Mr. Bannon said in the
statement. “We will have that same partnership in working to help
President-elect Trump achieve his agenda.”
Mr. Priebus said he looked forward to
working with Mr. Bannon and Mr. Trump “to create an economy that works
for everyone, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare and
destroy radical Islamic terrorism.”
The selection of Mr. Priebus to run
the White House staff is partly a reflection of concern among Mr.
Trump’s children, especially Ivanka Trump, as well as her husband, Jared
Kushner, that the job should not be held by someone too controversial,
according to several people familiar with the internal decision making.
But while Mr. Trump apparently feels
comfortable with Mr. Priebus, the people with knowledge of the decision
said that Mr. Bannon was better able to talk forcefully to the
president-elect during difficult moments.
Mr. Priebus is expected to have
multiple deputies, including Katie Walsh, the chief of staff of the
Republican National Committee, who is close to Mr. Priebus and helped
ensure a tight working relationship between the party’s operational
infrastructure and Mr. Trump’s campaign.
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Other advisers in Mr. Trump’s inner
circle will also have his ear, including Mr. Kushner, who is likely to
wield great influence over the new president regardless of whether he
holds a formal title. Mr. Kushner, who has no experience in politics or
government, is often the last person Mr. Trump turns to for counsel.
A onetime Goldman Sachs banker, Mr.
Bannon has transformed himself into a media figure who favors a
scorched-earth style of politics and views the corporate elite and the
government establishment with disdain.
Breitbart News regularly traffics in
racially charged accusations about Mr. Obama, provocative comparisons
between abortion providers and Holocaust killers, and contempt for
feminism. Many of its articles tap into a fierce populism not unlike the
voter sentiment that helped fuel Mr. Trump’s victory.
Despite his image as a bomb-thrower, Mr. Bannon is also savvy at cutting deals to achieve his goals.
But as chief of staff, Mr. Priebus
will be the one who has several hundred White House staff members
reporting to him. He will be the primary gatekeeper for Mr. Trump and
the person most responsible for steering the president’s agenda through
Congress. That role will be especially critical for Mr. Trump, who has
never served in government and has few connections to important
political figures.
The selection of Mr. Priebus comes at the end of a roller-coaster year for the Republican Party,
which saw Mr. Trump rewrite many of its policy orthodoxies, clash with
its leaders in Congress and denigrate the Bush political dynasty.
As Mr. Trump denounced the Republican
primary process as rigged and, on occasion, threatened to quit the party
and run on his own, Mr. Priebus remained neutral. And when Mr. Trump
secured the nomination, Mr. Priebus stood by his side.
Mr. Priebus worked with Mr. Trump on
the nuts and bolts of presidential politics, trying to smooth his rough
edges and staying in close contact as a bare-bones campaign prepared to
go up against the Clinton machine.
On the surface, the two men could
hardly be more different. While Mr. Trump, 70, is known for his
brashness and at times his viciousness, the much younger Mr. Priebus,
44, is regarded for his low profile and humility.
A Wisconsin native and lawyer by
training, Mr. Priebus has never held elected office. But he served as
state treasurer and worked his way up through the Wisconsin Republican
Party to become chairman, putting him on the Republican National
Committee, where he eventually became general counsel to the chairman at
the time, Michael Steele.
Now the longest-serving Republican
National Committee chairman, Mr. Priebus was elected to the job in 2011,
unseating Mr. Steele on the promise of modernizing the party and
refilling its coffers. With his focus on fund-raising and fiscal issues,
Mr. Priebus let Republican leaders in Congress be the voices of the
party during the early part of his tenure. His profile rose as the 2016
election got into gear.
At times, Mr. Priebus, whose first
name rhymes with “pints,” struggled to defend Mr. Trump’s antics, but he
showed his loyalty by supplementing the campaign’s resources and by
urging Republicans to fall in line behind the candidate in spite of
their reservations.
When Mr. Trump emerged onstage to give
his victory speech early Wednesday, Mr. Trump made his appreciation
clear, dismissing rumors of tension with Mr. Priebus and singing his
praises.
“I never had a bad second with him,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s an unbelievable star.”
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