The revolving door at the White House refuses to slow down.
Michael Roman, a longtime opposition researcher who worked in the White House counsel’s office, has left the Trump administration.
Roman served as a special assistant to the president and director of special projects and research. His last day was Friday, according to an email obtained by POLITICO.
When Sebastian Gorka worked at the White House, the running joke in political circles was that no one could figure what, exactly, he did or what his job entailed. Roman faced similar questions.
We know the former Koch operative worked with White House Counsel Don McGahn — which was itself curious, since most of those who work in the White House counsel’s office are lawyers — but Politico‘s report on his departure added, “Few were certain of his exact job.”
Roman’s exit came just one day after Bryan Rice resigned as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He’d only served in the position for six months.
The week before, Michael Catanzaro, the architect of the White House’s energy agenda, announced he’s leaving, too.
A day earlier, White House cyber security coordinator Rob Joyce announced he’s also leaving his post, though he isn’t going far: Joyce will return to the National Security Agency.
With John Bolton taking over as Donald Trump’s national security advisor, several top officials have also departed, including Army Maj. Gen. Rick Waddell and Nadia Schadlow, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for strategy.
All of which suggests this is a good time to update the overall list of prominent Trump World departures:
Cabinet: HHS Secretary Tom Price, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, VA Secretary David Shulkin
West Wing: Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh, Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Director of Public Liaison George Sifakis, Office of Public Liaison Communications Director Omarosa Manigault, Staff Secretary Rob Porter, Deputy Assistant to the President Sean Cairncross, Chief Usher Angella Reid, Assistant to the President Reed Cordish, Personal Assistant to the President John McEntee, Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Carroll (who’s leaving his post to become the “drug czar”), Special Assistant to the President and Director of Special Projects and Research Michael Roman
White House Communications: Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Assistant Press Secretary Michael Short, Communications Director #1 Mike Dubke, Communications Director #2 Anthony Scaramucci, Communications Director #3 Hope Hicks, Rapid Response Director Andy Hemming, Speechwriter David Sorensen, Senior Communications Official Josh Raffel, Deputy Director of Media Affairs Tyler Ross
National Security team: National Security Advisor #1 Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor #2 H.R. McMaster, Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland, Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell, Advisor to the National Security Council Monica Crowley, Director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Deputy Chief of Staff at the National Security Council Tera Dahl, Director Of Strategic Planning at the National Security Council Rich Higgins, NSC Middle East Advisor Derek Harvey, U.S. diplomat overseeing North Korea policy Joseph Yun, Senior Advisor to the Defense Secretary Sally Donnelly, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Elaine Duke, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Tom Bossert, National Security Council Spokesperson Michael Anton, White House Cyber Security Coordinator Rob Joyce, Deputy National Security Adviser Rick Waddell, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Nadia Schadlow Diplomatic team: Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein, Chief of State to the Secretary of State Margaret Peterlin, Deputy Chief of State to the Secretary of State Christine Ciccone, State Department Counselor Maliz Beams, State Department Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, Ambassador to Panama John Feeley, Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson The self-identified “nationalist” wing: Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon, National Security Aide Sebastian Gorka Federal law enforcement: Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI Director James Comey, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord, FBI Assistant Director Mike Kortan, Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section chief David Laufman, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, dozens of U.S. Attorneys Office of the Vice President: Chief of Staff Josh Pitcock, Press Secretary Marc Lotter, Chief Counsel Mark Paoletta, Domestic Policy Director Daris Meeks A cavalcade of others that includes CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, National Economic Council Deputy Director Jeremy Katz, Domestic Policy Council Deputy Director Paul Winfree; Director of Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub, Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy Director William Bradford, Department of Homeland Security Faith-Based Director Jamie Johnson, Corporation for National and Community Service Chief of External Affairs Carl Higbie, Office of Drug Control Policy Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Weyeneth, Trump legal team spokesperson Mark Corallo, EPA Office of Science and Technology Director Elizabeth Southerland, National Economic Council adviser George David Banks, Federal Railroad Administration’s acting chief Heath Hall, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke, Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, Special Assistant to the President on Infrastructure DJ Gribbin, White House Adviser for Energy and Environmental Policy Michael Catanzaro, Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Bryan Rice, and Carl Icahn, who served as a special adviser to the president on regulatory reform. As we discussed a while back, this does not include a variety of people the president nominated for prominent administrative posts — including some cabinet positions — who ultimately withdrew in the face of assorted controversies, nor does it include the many changes to Trump’s outside legal team.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
