Trump administration sees record rate of first-year staff turnover

Washington, Dec 29 (IANS) US President Donald Trump's White House has seen a record rate of first-year staff turnover, the media reported.

During Trump's first year in office, his administration saw a 34-per cent turnover rate, higher than that of any other administration in the past 40 years, Xinhua reported citing The Wall Street Journal which cited Brookings Institute senior fellow Kathryn Dunn-Tenpas, on Thursday.

The rate of staff turnover is twice as high as in 1981, the second highest, when then-President Ronald Reagan's administration had a 17-per cent turnover.

As per The Journal, 21 of the 61 senior officials tracked have either resigned, been fired or reassigned.

"Not only is the percentage double, the seniority of people leaving is extraordinarily high," Dunn-Tenpas said.

"The first year always seems to have some mis-steps on staffing, often because the skills that worked well running a campaign don't always align with what it takes to run a government," she noted. "In this case, it's a president with no experience in government and people around him who also had no experience."

The Trump administration has been plagued by controversy over those departures, including the firing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the removal of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Other high-profile names to have left the administration include former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, and former advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.