White House set to name communications chief

The White House has selected its communications director, but the choice is already irking some longtime Trump loyalists.

Officials plan to announce Mike Dubke, the founder of conservative firm Crossroads Media, as head of White House communications, a source close to Dubke confirmed to The Hill on Friday morning.

CNN, which first reported the news, said Dubke’s hiring could be announced as early as Friday, exactly four weeks into President Trump’s term.

Press secretary Sean Spicer has been serving double-duty as communications director, and the hire is widely expected to take some of the pressure off the spokesman, who has faced tough questions from reporters and been mocked more than once by “Saturday Night Live.”

{mosads}But the selection is seen as an establishment GOP choice by some officials, who would have preferred a veteran of Trump’s renegade campaign.

“Dubke and his Crossroads friends did everything they could to kill the Trump movement and failed,” one Trump loyalist told CNN.

Crossroads Media has served, among others, American Crossroads, the super PAC launched by former Republican White House strategist Karl Rove.

The report comes one day after Trump held the first full press conference of his presidency. The 77-minute conference was a wide-ranging and at times heated discussion between Trump and reporters, touching on many of the controversies from his first month in the Oval Office.

Reid Wilson contributed.

Updated at 9:06 a.m.