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By Sean Spicer
Video via Adam B. Ellick and Jonah M. Kessel
Spicer, the first press secretary in Donald Trump’s White House. Mr. Ellick is the executive producer of Opinion Video. Mr. Kessel is the deputy director of Opinion Video.
Why did the first Trump administration go off the rails so temporarily and dramatically?And will his second administration do the same, or will it end up being more effective than many people think?Sean Spicer played a pivotal role in the chaos eight years later as Donald Trump’s first White House press secretary: his outlandish claims about the length of the crowd at the presidential inauguration illustrated the circus atmosphere in which aides and advisers prepared and drove to please the emcee. Trump, and little had been done. In an op-ed video, Spicer shares his take on the crowd debacle and draws on his experience with Trump in place to say his second term will be profoundly different from the first and confrontational.
Spicer, who worked in politics for more than 30 years and served as communications director for the Republican National Committee, said Trump’s team in the White House in early 2017 was not a team at all, but rather an organization of people. characters who didn’t know each other well and got carried away by the opportunity to advertise their own brands, leading to infighting and personality wars. This time, he says, Trump has a team of long-time allies who, from day one, will prioritize politics over personality.
If he didn’t like Mr. Trump, the chaos of his first term came in handy; it hindered his agenda. But this time no one is laughing or divulging as much, and Spicer says that’s a sign of what’s to come: The next Trump White House will stay on track and have a very different impact.
Sean Spicer served as Donald Trump’s first White House press secretary and is the host of “The Sean Spicer Show.”
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Adam B. Ellick is the director and producer of Opinion Video at the Times, which he founded in 2018. He has produced Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award, and Emmy Award-winning video journalism and films. @aellick • Facebook
Jonah M. Kessel is deputy editor of Opinion Video at the New York Times. Mr. Kessel’s video journalism is a hybrid of short explanatory and investigative documentaries and other cutting-edge bureaucracy of visual journalism. @jonah_kessel • Facebook
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