WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s communications directors don’t stick around very long.
His current one, Hope Hicks, announced Wednesday that she will resign in the coming weeks. She spent just 169 days in the role from the day she assumed it (not counting her period as interim communications director) to the day she announced her resignation.
Using a dataset first put together by CNN’s Ryan Struyk and adding in Hick’s time in the job, it’s clear that Trump’s communication directors are setting the record for shortest average stint since the post was created during President Richard Nixon’s administration.
And it’s not even close.
A communications director for Trump’s administration on average lasts less than 100 days on the job. Communications directors in the average administration, including Trump’s, last about 580 days or so.
Hicks did best Anthony Scaramucci, who had the shortest stint ever for a communications director, at five days. Hicks also bested Mike Dubke, who bid farewell before reaching the 90-day mark.
Before Trump, the short-lived Gerald Ford administration had the shortest average stint for communications director at a little shy of 300 days. That’s about 200 days longer than Trump’s communications directors have been lasting.
Trump’s immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, had their communications directors last a little less than two years and about three years, respectively. Bush’s were a record duration.
The bottom line is that Trump’s communication directors are coming and going at a very fast, and one might say chaotic, rate. Even if the next one lasted 500 days, the Trump administration’s average would still be the record for the shortest.
