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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Late Night Palace Intrigue Open Thread: Conway vs. Schlapp — Root for the Crook, It’s Important!

Late Night Palace Intrigue Open Thread: Conway vs. Schlapp — Root for the Crook, It’s Important!

by Anne Laurie|  March 30, 20182:54 am| 24 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, All Too Normal, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

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the year that Mercy Schlapp, who’s now in the running to replace Hope Hicks, joined the Trump administration, her husband’s lobbying firm saw its income nearly double. https://t.co/tUWUsnMEHO

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) March 29, 2018

Just posting this is gonna infuriate some of y’all, but still: Kellyanne Conway wants to be Trump’s next communications director, because she wants the money and power. Mercedes ‘Mercy’ Schlapp, with the backing of her repulsive husband CPAC director Matt Schlapp, wants to be Trump’s next communications director because she wants the money and power, and they believe their God has anointed them to do anything they want to get it. As a religious person myself, I find Conway’s simplicity preferable.

Olivia Nuzzi (yes, I know she’s probably a terrible person, but she’s also a professional), at NYMag, reports from “Inside the Cutthroat Battle to Be the Next Hope Hicks”:

…The race to fill the Hicks void is a clandestine parade of all the worst human impulses. Among the potential hires mentioned by Trump in conversations with aides in recent weeks are former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who reportedly isn’t interested, and Kellyanne Conway, who reportedly is. But administration sources told New York that, whoever the job goes to, the real story is the bloodletting between two early frontrunners: director of strategic communications Mercedes “Mercy” Schlapp and Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh, both former Fox News contributors.

White House officials told New York the view from the inside is that Mercy wants it most, and is campaigning for the job with the assistance of her husband, Matt Schlapp, a lobbyist and frequent presence on cable news who chairs the American Conservative Union, while Sayegh is a competitor because he was well-liked by Hicks, whose recommendation the president is expected to weigh heavily. When anonymous sources began sprouting weed-like in the conservative press to go after Sayegh, the Schlapps were blamed. And their perceived ruthlessness had a perceived profit motive: the year that Mercy joined the administration, Matt’s lobbying firm saw its income nearly double…

When Hicks finally became vulnerable – amid her involvement in the various Russia investigations and Degrassi: The Next Generation-meets-Homeland drama in her personal life – Schlapp saw opportunity, sources said. Speaking to New York last month, Schlapp denied this characterization from her colleagues; she said she was hurt by the rumors. “I called Hope right away and was like, ‘This is ridiculous. You know where my heart is and where we work together.’ I mean, she is someone who I incredibly value,” Schlapp said. “I feel like Mother Hen here a lot of times, and I’m very protective of my little – you know, the team.” But a former White House official said that was laughable: “She went after Hope with a fucking full knife right away.” Beloved baby chick or Kentucky Fried, the maneuvering to fill Hicks’s position was cannibalistic from the start…

Sources inside and outside the administration said that the Schlapps suffer from a lack of subtlety that reveals not only the methods used to reach an end, but their motives for wanting the end in the first place. When Mercy entered the White House, she left Cove Strategies, the lobbying group where her husband remains a principal. From 2009 to 2016, according to data from OpenSecrets, Cove Strategies earned between $390,000 and $640,000 annually, lobbying on behalf of companies like Comcast, WalMart, Verizon, the Motion Picture Association of America, Dow Chemical, Koch Industries, and so on. In 2016, Cove Strategies earned $640,000 lobbying for five companies. But in 2017, the year Mercy Schlapp became a Trump official, those numbers almost doubled: Cove Strategies earned $1,030,000 from nine clients…

After telling New York that Schlapp and Sayegh wanted to be interviewed for this story, the White House instead provided New York with a statement from deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley: “This palace intrigue nonsense is all ridiculous. Like at any workplace, Tony and Mercy interact in an entirely professional manner. They work closely together and make great things happen for the President’s agenda – and will continue to do so.” The White House also told New York that Schlapp and Sayegh have plans for some kind of social interaction this week, but couldn’t say what those plans were or when exactly they would take place. First, they said it was a dinner. Then, it was a lunch.

But ridiculous nonsense matters a lot in the Trump era, and this episode of fighting has staffers in a state of existential crisis. “One component is always trying to do their jobs, and one component is trying to keep some semblance of peace, and one component is where all the chaos goes,” a White House official said. “At some point we’re all going to need therapists or psychiatrists.”

“In this White House, the comms shop is one hundred times more important than the policy shop. The comms shop is what Trump lives for – that’s why he’s on Twitter all the time. Policy is not relevant to him, he doesn’t care. What he cares about are stories,” a second former White House official told New York. “The president of the United States walked into lower press and put his head in there,” the former official added, referring to a recent incident when Trump walked into the briefing room to tell reporters he’d have an announcement soon. “The president of the fucking United States – he’s like an assistant press secretary!”…

The Way We Live Now!

Why am I ignoring the chances of (no doubt, skilled professional & possibly nice person) Tony Sayegh? Because I assume what Trump wants in a Hope Hicks replacement is The Perfect Office Handmaiden, and for once Sayegh’s position of a Y chromosome will lessen his chances; Trump famously doesn’t trust other males, and prefers to have women in those almost-family “support network” positions.

Also, there’s this:

Kellyanne Conway's husband has begun deleting a series of tweets he posted in the past month that are critical of Trump. https://t.co/HHcTYhDRvi

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 29, 2018

Bonus reading, for those interested in the sausage-making process behind the news media: Elon Green at CRJ with a longish interview — “Olivia Nuzzi on how she got Hope Hicks to talk”

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Reader Interactions

24Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    March 30, 2018 at 3:49 am

    No interest when it involves Nuzzi grabbing.

  2. 2.

    mainmata

    March 30, 2018 at 3:51 am

    I don’t know. I kind of like Olivia Nuzzi’s writing style. The Degrassi meets Homeland line was pretty funny and, I mean, let’s face it, the de Medicis of Renaissance Florence would feel quite at home in the Trump White House. In that light, what we need is someone to write this administration’s version of Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. It could be called “The Trump.”

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 30, 2018 at 4:53 am

    Conway vs. Schlapp — Root for the Crook, It’s Important!

    I give up, which one are we supposed to root for?

    Me, I’m rooting for injuries. If we’re gonna have a good old-fashioned cat fight, there should be plenty of visible scars!

  4. 4.

    la caterina

    March 30, 2018 at 4:55 am

    Wait, what? They’re all crooks. I can’t figure out which one I’m supposed to root for.

  5. 5.

    la caterina

    March 30, 2018 at 4:56 am

    @lowtechcyclist: Great insomniacs think alike!

  6. 6.

    la caterina

    March 30, 2018 at 4:57 am

    @lowtechcyclist: I need to learn how to insert the quote box into my comments.

  7. 7.

    satby

    March 30, 2018 at 5:09 am

    I don’t care about all the infighting other than it keeps the chaos going and (hopefully) slows down the misadministration’s ability to accomplish their evil goals.

  8. 8.

    la caterina

    March 30, 2018 at 5:13 am

    @satby: The infighting (and the stupid) is all that keeps me from collapsing in utter despair. I must be evil.

  9. 9.

    Montanareddog

    March 30, 2018 at 5:32 am

    Sometimes, I just step back and reflect how utterly extraordinary it is that the executive administration in the world’s most powerful political entity is in such a condition. How can this be? How can this have happened and how can it be allowed to continue? It is like watching a gazillion vehicle, multi-dimensional car crash in slow motion.

  10. 10.

    Montanareddog

    March 30, 2018 at 5:38 am

    @Montanareddog: I have very little knowledge of the superhero canon. Was The Joker ever elected mayor of Gotham City? Because that would seem the best analogy in pop culture.

  11. 11.

    satby

    March 30, 2018 at 5:39 am

    @la caterina: come sit by me sweetie!

  12. 12.

    Montanareddog

    March 30, 2018 at 5:40 am

    @satby:

    I don’t care about all the infighting other than it keeps the chaos going and (hopefully) slows down the misadministration’s ability to accomplish their evil goals.

    I am not alleging intent here – I believe the Shitgibbon is incapable of that. But the chaos is doing a fine job of distracting from the evil goals.

  13. 13.

    Bostondreams

    March 30, 2018 at 7:15 am

    @Montanareddog:

    Lex Luthor was elected president of the United States.
    But he was more ethical than this lot.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    March 30, 2018 at 7:27 am

    Rooting for injuries

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    March 30, 2018 at 7:30 am

    @Montanareddog:
    It’s this way because a majority of White people clung to the Whiteness. Period.

    It does give me pleasure that their vessel of White Supremacy is an international embarrassment.

  16. 16.

    sp98

    March 30, 2018 at 8:02 am

    C. S. Lewis, despite his reactionary social inclinations, was a pretty good student of human nature, and one quote illustrates this principle – that the crook is preferable to the true believer – nicely:

    I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.

  17. 17.

    ixnay

    March 30, 2018 at 8:08 am

    I’m rooting for a Fish Schlapping contest, or just straight up Stooges Schlappstick.

  18. 18.

    germy

    March 30, 2018 at 8:31 am

    @NotMax:

    No interest.

    I agree.

    Nuzzi was outed a while ago as a FOM (Friend of Milo)

    Her job is to normalize people like hope.

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    March 30, 2018 at 8:39 am

    @germy:

    And she’s a Twitter fan of Ann Coulter.

  20. 20.

    germy

    March 30, 2018 at 8:43 am

    @Steeplejack: NYMag features Nuzzi, Andrew Sullivan and Chait. I don’t click on those three.

  21. 21.

    Kathleen

    March 30, 2018 at 9:03 am

    @germy: The KKKool KKKids have to stick together.

  22. 22.

    The Other Chuck

    March 30, 2018 at 9:25 am

    @sp98: What we have right now is an incompetent crook of the highest order, propped up by True Believers in the philosophy of “Hurt everyone who is different from us”. CS Lewis was apparently naïve enough to think the choices were exclusive.

  23. 23.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 30, 2018 at 9:30 am

    @germy: Nuzzi…does she pronounce that “Nutsy” or “Nazi”? Fiend of Milo Winderbunder, quell surprise. So the latter I guess. To think I share an ancestral homeland with this nitwit……

    And just FTR HH was not felled by a “long knife” – it was a Schlappschott to the back of the head….

  24. 24.

    workworkwork

    March 30, 2018 at 12:09 pm

    @Bostondreams: Plus Lex was a real billionaire and he divested of his businesses when taking office.

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