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President Trump shakes up White House staff again

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(CNN) -- President Donald Trump on Thursday shook up his senior West Wing staff, days after his administration faced its first major legislative setback in failing to pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Katie Walsh, the White House's deputy chief of staff, will join a nonprofit group supporting the President's agenda, a senior White House official and source familiar with the decision said.

The move marks the second departure of a senior White House official in the first months of the administration, following national security adviser Michael Flynn's forced resignation last month.

 

 

Walsh was White House chief of staff Reince Priebus' deputy, joining him in the administration after serving as chief of staff to Priebus when he was chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Walsh is joining America First Policies, once envisioned as the marquee outside group to bolster Trump's political objectives. It has sputtered in the opening months of its presidency, having done no television advertising on behalf of Trump's Supreme Court nomination, and only began spending to prevent the White House's embarrassing defeat over Obamacare on the final day of the weeks-long debate.

Just this week, the family expected to be its principal funders, the Mercer family of New York, defected to a rival nonprofit, Making America Great. They brought with them one of the operatives initially slated to work at America First -- Dave Bossie, a Mercer hand who had served as deputy campaign manager.

 

 

 

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