Normally, former officials in a president’s administration can count on securing cushy contributor jobs with one of the many broadcast and cable news organizations. These roles, which can pay 6-figures annually to make occasional appearances on programming, have long been a staple of the revolving door between politics and media.
The Trump administration, however, has mostly bucked that trend. With the exception of Fox News Channel, which has hired a flurry of former Trump administration officials (former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, economic adviser Larry Kudlow, among others), most former Trump officials have been left off the list of network contributors elsewhere.
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That is until this month, when CBS News made two notable hires. On March 29, it hired former congressman, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director and Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as a political contributor. And on March 14 it hired former Trump National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster as a foreign policy and national security contributor.
The hiring of McMaster and particularly Mulvaney spurred outrage from the left and other political observers (Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group that monitors media coverage called his hiring an “embarrassment”), with some noting that Mulvaney was chief of staff when Trump withheld defense aid from Ukraine after asking for president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Bidem’s son Hunter Biden, and others noting that in Nov. 2020 Mulvaney wrote in the Wall Street Journal that if he lost, Trump “would concede gracefully.”
In his first appearance on CBS Tuesday, he discussed Biden’s 2023 budget and tax plan. He was introduced as a CBS News contributor and former OMB director, but the Trump connection was not made clear, context that would have more clearly explained his criticism of Biden’s budget.
A CBS News employee tells The Hollywood Reporter that outrage inside the network has not matched that from outside observers. While they said they thought Mulvaney’s first appearance should have made clearer his roles in the Trump administration, ultimately what matters is that Mulvaney and McMaster are giving their unvarnished thoughts and opinions, while acknowledging their political histories and leanings. Don’t be surprised if future appearances make the Trump connection more obvious.
But the hiring of Mulvaney and McMaster are also signs of early jockeying for 2024. Midterm years are often seen as an opportunity by TV news outlets to restock their contributor roster in advance of a presidential election year. Meanwhile, Trump is strongly considering another presidential run, and even if he doesn’t, he is expected to have a powerful role in any primary process.
That means that networks will want people on staff well ahead of any primary with some insight into Trump’s thinking and mindset. And with many former Trump officials likely to be completely toxic to mainstream news organizations for supporting Jan. 6 (think former trade adviser Peter Navarro, chief of staff Mark Meadows, or campaign chief Steve Bannon), the list of former Trump administration officials who can provide that insight without being totally off-limits is a small one. Of course, Mulvaney’s Nov. 2020 WSJ op-ed does suggest that his insight into Trump’s mindset may not be as obvious as it seems.
And both McMaster and Mulvaney have been critical of Trump since leaving the administration. Mulvaney resigned as the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, telling CNBC at the time that he called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and told him “I can’t do it. I can’t stay.” He has since said however that he would support Trump if he were the GOP nominee in 2024.
McMaster, meanwhile, accused Trump in his memoir of “aiding and abetting” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s effort to influence U.S. voters through misinformation. Since joining CBS, McMaster has exclusively discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The political-media pipeline is a Washington (and TV news) tradition, and there are early signs that the Biden administration will mark a return to normal, with Vice president Harris’ top communications aide Symone Sanders having already joined MSNBC, and Biden press secretary Jen Psaki having held talks with MSNBC and CNN about post-White House options (“you can’t get rid of me quite yet,” Psaki quipped when asked about her meetings in a recent press briefing). The early success among team Biden makes the relative blackout for former Trump officials all the more unusual.
But the CBS moves, combined with Fox’s current roster, suggest that the blackout is unlikely to continue through 2024.
