Biden reportedly likes a 'low-key' White House

As far as they'll have you know, some of President Biden's closest advisers don't exist — and he'd probably prefer to keep it that way.

In an article published by The New York Times on Tuesday, White House aides revealed the president "does not like profiles of his staff in the news," in some ways "undoing a longstanding Washington tradition in which staff members enjoy their own refracted fame."

The "aversion to attention-loving staff" is reportedly not because Mr. Biden prefers to hoard the spotlight; in fact, he actually enjoys when cabinet secretaries defend his policies on television, the Times writes. But the waters are muddied when advisers become celebrities themselves. Said Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the president: "That is a very deliberate decision." Furthermore, the president has been burned before by self-proclaimed "gurus" and celebrity political consultants — aides say he "eventually solved that problem by surrounding himself with low-key people."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Biden's comparatively-invisible gang of aides and staff are seemingly "trying to set themselves apart from the drama of the Trump administration," especially as they push "once-in-a-generation" health and economic policies, the Times reports. Simply put, there isn't enough time for celebrity — they'd rather make good on Biden's campaign promise to be a normal, boring president. Not to mention COVID-19 restrictions have wiped traditional spotlight-sharing White House social events off the map.

Instead, the "least personality-driven West Wing in decades" is full of career government staffers who have already "proven themselves." Said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain to the Times: most are "parents of young kids who put their off-hours energy into being parents, not into staff drama."

Read more at The New York Times.