The White House Is Taking Desperate Measures to Get Anyone to Work for Them

509 days into the Trump administration, virtually every joke about President Donald Trump hiring “the best people” has been exhausted. A Brookings analysis in January found that 34 percent of White House senior staffers had either left or switched roles in the administration’s first year—compared to 9 precent in President Obama’s rookie season—and the staff churn has continued since then. Just last night, CBS reported that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her deputy, Raj Shah, are also eyeing the exits. (Sanders denied the story on Twitter.)

By almost every account besides that of Trump himself, working in the White House in 2018 comes with significant occupational hazards. The boss is impulsive, erratic, and prone to criticize his employees in public. Worker bees, meanwhile, attempt to salvage their own reputations for future book deals and future lobbying jobs by anonymously sharing office gossip with outside reporters. Happy hour conversations among colleagues must be lively.

Still, the notion that the U.S. government might be having trouble filling some of the most high-profile jobs in the world defies belief. Yet Politico reported late Wednesday that an email blast to conservatives on Capitol Hill basically suggested as much in its subject line: “Interested in a job at the White House?”

From Politico’s Annie Karni, who first reported the email and attached flyer from the Conservative Partnership Institute, advertising an “Executive Brance Job Fair” being held on Friday at the Dirksen Senate Office Building:

It promises that “representatives from across the Trump administration will be there to meet job seekers of every experience level.” A person familiar with the planning said that Johnny DeStefano, who oversees the White House personnel department, and Sean Doocey, a deputy assistant to the president for presidential personnel, are expected to be on hand, among other officials from the West Wing.

…

The goal of the upcoming Trump job fair, according to a person familiar with the planning, is to specifically target serious conservatives to fill slots, from junior positions all the way up to assistant secretary-level positions.

“Serious conservatives”—think Anthony Scaramucci. My only suggestion to the White House would be to combine this event in the future with CPAC, a particularly target-rich environment for idealistic khaki-and-blazer types. In lieu of that this year, though, I plan on seeing you all at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Friday afternoon, updated resume in hand.