Senior White House officials, including Press Secretary Sean Spicer, learned that President Trump selected a nominee for FBI director when the president announced it on Twitter, according to the Daily Beast.
Citing “multiple White House officials,” The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Trump’s top communications staff and many senior officials had no idea the president was planning to make the announcement via Twitter which resulted in a lack of an official press release or fact sheet.
“It’s just the latest instance of President Trump’s senior staffers, particularly his communications and press shop, being cut out of the loop, undermined, and frazzled by their unpredictable boss and his compulsive tweeting habit,” The Daily Beast wrote.
Early Wednesday morning, Trump announced that his nomination to replace James Comey would be Christopher Wray.
I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new Director of the FBI. Details to follow.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2017
Citing a “senior administration official,” the Daily Beast was told “of course not” when asked if Spicer or Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders were informed that Trump would make the decision.
“Also left in the dark were key members of Congress whose support could be vital to Wray’s confirmation–and to building goodwill in the face of intense scrutiny of every administration decision with respect to the agency investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election,” the Daily Beast wrote.
Six White House and senior administration officials spoke with The Daily Beast and none of them were aware of the news before seeing it on twitter, according to the website.
“We woke up to this,” one source told the Beast. “This is how [Trump] operates.”