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

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”