Former Fox News co-president Bill Shine has resigned as deputy chief of staff and communications director of the Trump White House after just eight months, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Friday.
“Bill Shine offered his resignation to the President yesterday evening, and the President accepted. Bill continues to support President Trump and his agenda and will serve as Senior Advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign,” Sanders said.
Shine, who previously served as co-president of Fox News after the departure of Roger Ailes, will take a new position as a senior advisor with the Trump 2020 reelection campaign.
“Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor,” Shine said a press release announcing his departure. “I’m looking forward to working on President Trump’s reelection campaign and spending more time with my family.”
A longtime Fox News hand, Shine was elevated to share the top job with Jack Abernethy in August, 2016 after multiple allegations of sexual harassment were made against longtime chief Roger Ailes.
As an Ailes ally, however, Shine found himself named in multiple lawsuits against the channel and was ultimately pushed out himself in May of 2017. He was hired by Trump to replace Hope Hicks as White House Communications director in July of 2018. (Hicks, ultimately took a plum job as Fox’s chief communications officer and a top aide to Lachlan Murdoch.) Critics then and now blasted both career moves as further proof of the closeness of the Trump White House and Fox leadership.
The Shine departure once again leaves open the troubled position of White House Communications Director. President Trump has cycled through five comms chiefs since taking office.