White House communications director Hope Hicks will leave the White House in the coming weeks.

Hicks, 29, served as President Trump’s campaign spokesperson before following him to the White House. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the news to the Washington Examiner Wednesday.

Sanders said the decision has “nothing at all whatsoever” to do with Hicks’ testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. That testimony lasted eight hours as a part of their investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia . . .

Sanders told a group of reporters Wednesday that Hicks “had been thinking about it before” the Porter controversy and said Trump “is not unhappy with her in any way” after Hicks reportedly testified that she told white lies on Trump’s behalf . . .

In an afternoon statement confirming her departure, Hicks said: “There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country.” (Read more from “Hope Hicks Leaving the White House” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

A top official in the Trump administration resigned this week after being told by the White House that he would not receive a permanent security clearance after he admitted to prior drug use.

George David Banks, who served as special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy, resigned from his position on Tuesday after admitting to smoking marijuana in 2013. Politico reports:

A former CIA analyst who also previously worked at the State Department and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Banks emerged last year as the administration’s lead policy expert on the Paris climate change agreement, and he played a key behind-the-scenes role in the months-long internal debate over whether to remain in the pact.

A former Obama administration official who worked on personnel and vetting issues said the Obama White House usually only denied clearances when there was both past drug use and a lack of full disclosure.

Banks was among the nearly three dozen other White House officials operating on an interim security clearance while the administration evaluated the status of their permanent security clearance application. (Read more from “The Reason a Third White House Official Failed to Qualify for Security Clearance” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Big changes are expected at the White House in 2018.

Shuffling the top hierarchy of the White House staff, Johnny DeStefano, a senior administration official, will be assuming greater responsibilities beginning in 2018, per an Axios report.

DeStefano, who already enjoys great influence in the Trump administration, will be overseeing the White House’s political operation — an important endeavor as the 2018 midterms elections quickly approach.

According to sources with direct knowledge of the changes, DeStano will be taking on the job responsibilities of deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, who is expected to leave the White House at some point next year.

Another item up for revision is the Trump administration’s political operation, currently headed by Bill Stepien.

Stepien, a seasoned political operative who served as an aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, is widely judged by his White House colleagues not to be performing at a satisfactory level.

Regarded as a quiet man who holds little influence with Republicans on Capitol Hill, Stepien was viewed as a major factor for several GOP fumbles this year, such as failed health care reform in Congress and the handling of Roy Moore’s Senate candidacy in Alabama.

A tense meeting regarding the White House’s political operation resulted in former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski berating Stepien for lackluster results.

“Nobody knows what the f— he’s done or is doing to advance the president’s agenda politically,” a senior administration figure, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “There’s no follow through on initiatives.”

DeStefano, on the other hand, is regarded as a skillful political operative, having worked as a senior adviser to former Speaker of the House John Boehner and assisted the Republican National Committee in amassing a 2016 voter file and political database.

The White House will utilize the well-connected DeStefano to keep relationships with Republicans around the United States.

The rising operative is expected to leading the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, where he will maintain the White House’s relationships with Republican leaders across the country, such as governors, state legislators, mayors and tribal leaders.

DeStefano will also begin leading the Office of Public Liaison, the Trump administration’s outreach to interest groups, and is set to keep his current role overseeing personnel appointments across the White House.

A lot of responsibility for one individual, but not surprising for a White House that has seen many turnovers in its first year. Officials hope to steady the ship by placing the right people in pivotal leadership positions.

In fact, staff turnover in the Trump White House has been unprecedented in the modern era.

The current administration’s 34 percent first-year turnover rate is double that of former President Reagan’s 17 percent in 1981 —the closest rate comparable in the past four decades, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Twenty-one of the 61 senior officials tracked by the Brookings Institution has either resigned, been reassigned or outright fired.

Notable departures include national security adviser Michael Flynn, senior adviser Steve Bannon, chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

Perhaps the most famous staffer was White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci — who lasted just one week on the job. Administration members still refer to that time period as “Scaramucci week.” (For more from the author of “Report: Big Changes Coming to Trump White House in 2018” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

By Andrew Kaczynski, Chris Massie and Nathan McDermott. A White House senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security previously promoted conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama’s birthplace, lamented the “Zimbabwe-fication of America,” and mocked the LGBT community.

Frank Wuco has served as the White House adviser to DHS since January and now leads a team tasked with helping to enforce President Donald Trump’s executive orders, including the administration’s travel ban.

Before that, he hosted a conservative talk radio show in Florida for several years and appeared as a guest on other talk radio shows. CNN’s KFile reviewed more than 40 hours of audio of Wuco’s show and his other appearances.

Wuco, a retired naval intelligence officer, has previously come under media scrutiny for his hardline views on Islam. Wuco has said that violent extremism is in line with the teachings of mainstream Islam and has dressed up as a jihadist character named Fuad Wasul in videos to teach others about the dangers of Islam. (Read more from “CNN Complains Senior White House DHS Adviser Is a Birther, LGBT Critic, and Hardline Anti-Islamist'” HERE)

_________________________________

Agency Defends DHS Adviser Wuco

By Josh Delk. Frank Wuco, who hosted a conservative radio program before joining the White House in January, floated the conspiracy that Obama was not eligible to be president because he was not a natural born U.S. citizen and claimed that Obama knew “nothing about the black American experience.”

“Mr. Wuco works every day to keep the American people safe by helping to implement the President’s security-focused agenda, including raising the global bar for vetting and screening of potential terrorists. Years-old comments cherry picked from thousands of hours on the air have no bearing on his ability to perform his job for the American people,” then acting DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton told CNN.

Wuco once hosted a guest in 2011 who wrote a book forwarding the case why Obama was ineligible to be president, and called the president’s birth certificate “questionable” after it was released to the public.

“This person, not only does he, with the exception of the color of his skin, not only does he sort of lay a very false claim on his identification with the black American experience, he has no idea what it is. But people don’t care,” Wuco once quoted a friend as saying on his show. Read more from Agency Defends DHS Adviser HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.