Trump spokesman Jason Miller backs out of senior White House job amid intrigue

Jason Miller backs out of White House job

(Image credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 26 December 2016

On Christmas Eve, President-elect Donald Trump's spokesman and adviser Jason Miller announced that he will no longer accept a position as Trump's White House director of communications, as announced last week, saying he wants to spend more time with his family. "After spending this past week with my family, the most amount of time I have been able to spend with them since March 2015, it is clear they need to be my top priority right now and this is not the right time to start a new job as demanding as White House communications director," he said in a statement. He added that his wife is giving birth to their second daughter in January, "and I need to put them in front of my career."

It is unusual enough for political operatives to turn down plum White House jobs, but Miler's departure was accompanied by a string of suggestive tweets from A.J. Delgado, a Trump campaign adviser and member of the transition team, who deactivated her account Saturday night. Delgado's account on Thursday had tweeted "Congratulations to the baby-daddy on being named WH Comms Director!" and appeared to call Miller "the 2016 version of John Edwards," the former Democratic presidential candidate who had an affair, then a daughter, with a videographer, The Washington Post says. Before deleting her account, Delgado tweeted on Saturday: "When people need to resign graciously and refuse to, it's a bit... spooky," and Miller "needed to resign... yesterday."

Miller told The Washington Post on Sunday, "I'll let my previous statement stand at this time." Sean Spicer, Trump's pick as White House press secretary, will also assume the duties of communications director, Miller's statement said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.