So yeah, it’s March Madness — we all know that. But according to recent reports, Trump White House staffers are filling out brackets of their own (with a little more than just a game at risk): a dead pool on who will be fired next.
Cool.
“Would you want to go to work every day not knowing whether your future career was going to be destroyed without explanation?” a White House official asked Axios yesterday, saying that there’s “very little hope” left.
There’s a long (and we mean long) list of White House staffers who have been fired or who’ve resigned: Hope Hicks, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Rob Porter…the list goes on. Most recently, there was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (then, hours later, also John McEntee, Trump’s personal assistant, as well as Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary of public affairs at the State Department.)
Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, was the shortest-serving chief of staff in presidential history, according to Politifact, having only lasted 189 days.
Washington Post White House reporter Josh Dawsey wrote on Twitter Wednesday night, “White House officials have begun betting pools of sorts among each other on who’s getting ousted next. Lot of people who are usually in the know are not in the know. Always fluid in White House but seems particularly so right now.”
White House officials have begun betting pools of sorts among each other on who’s getting ousted next. Lot of people who are usually in the know are not in the know. Always fluid in White House but seems particularly so right now.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 14, 2018
Then, as Huffington Post reported, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle replied, “I am hearing the same thing.”
Chairman of The Democratic Coalition Jon Cooper claims he posted a tweet about hearing word of the dead pool “months ago.”
?As a reminder, I posted a tweet several months ago saying a Trump staffer told me about a White House “betting pool” on who’d be the next to leave. ? https://t.co/PGti1zx59R
— Jon Cooper ?? (@joncoopertweets) March 15, 2018
Could Trump staffers really have a dead pool? White House reporter for CNN Kaitlan Collins tweeted yesterday, “Several White House officials are on edge over the recent string of firings and departures, describing the West Wing as an uneasy atmosphere. Multiple have told me they are unsure who could be fired or walked out next.”
Axios political reporter Jonathan Swan wrote that he keeps “hearing people telling me X person is imminently gone from the White House, but nobody serious really knows anything.”
Uncertainty is certainly in the air.
Dead pool templates
So, what would these dead pool brackets look like? Some Twitter users took a guess.
There were these:
Like this???? pic.twitter.com/nhP2hLX3J6
— ?C ??️? (@SDawg_Alum73) March 14, 2018
@realDonaldTrump ??? pic.twitter.com/d4vWZu1pP8
— inventormama (@inventormama) March 14, 2018
And apparently, there are bingo cards like this you can actually download.
There are several out. pic.twitter.com/yvcV7NjVos
— Michelle Antinarelli (@MJAntinarelli) March 14, 2018
It’s a different kind of March Madness over in Washington, but would you bet your money on the future of a Trump staffer? Looks like they might be.