In normal times it would go to the top of anyone’s curriculum vitae or résumé. Serving in the White House has typically been a passport to a lucrative job on a corporate board, in the lobbying industry or at a prestigious Washington thinktank.
But alumni of Donald Trump’s administration could be in for a rude awakening. The outgoing president proved so disruptive and divisive that those perceived to have been his enablers may find themselves given the cold shoulder as they seek alternative employment.
“Those people will carry this stain with them for the rest of their lives,” said Moe Vela, a former senior adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden. “The further we get away from his tenure, the more historians, political scientists, political operatives and just history itself will uncover, reveal and continue to demonstrate just how corrupt this was. And as that continues, the stain will only grow darker and larger.”
Presidential transitions can be brutal affairs. Officials who have become accustomed to working at America’s most famous address, weighing in on economic and national security issues that reverberate around the world, suddenly find themselves cast out into the cold of Washington after the inauguration of the new president-elect on a bleak January day.
But there is usually a support network in place, including nearby K Street, the home of political lobbying firms, and an array of thinktanks in the capital and beyond. Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state under President George W Bush, is now director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, which also gave safe harbour to Trump alumni Jim Mattis and HR McMaster.
White House press secretaries can prosper in the media or corporate world. Jay Carney, who was Barack Obama’s spokesman from 2011 to 2014, is a senior vice-president and head of public relations for Amazon. His successor, Josh Earnest, who had a spell as an NBC News and MSNBC analyst, is now senior vice-president and chief communications officer at United Airlines.
Source: Elections - theguardian.com
