Scott Jennings’ appointment as White House press secretary would not be a surprising turn in Donald Trump’s second administration. If the reports and rumors turn out to be right, the choice would say as much about our modern political media as it would about the CNN pundit himself. His is a particular kind of American grift that only cable news could have produced: the professional Trump apologist who spends years building a brand on “reasonable conservative who’ll push back a little,” cashes it in for a White House podium and never once has to explain how those two roles were supposed to coexist.
Jennings has been auditioning for that grift since the day he first told a CNN panel in 2017 that Trump deserved a fair hearing. Now, with Karoline Leavitt’s departure at the end of August, he may finally get taxpayers to fund his propaganda by way of a federal salary.
