— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on August 1, Tuesday.
In fact, it has been less than seven months since Trump took office as the President of the United States, and several government officials have already been fired or resigned. This includes the latest dismissal of White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, who was only in office for 10 days. On Monday, U.S. time, the White House confirmed his dismissal.
According to the New York Times, Scaramucci bypassed John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, to directly report to Trump and because of this Kelly requested to have Scaramucci dismissed, to which Trump supported. This saga has shown that tensions are high within the Trump's adminstration. Prior to Scaramucci, officials who either resigned or were dismissed included former United States Attorney, Sally Yates, former United States National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, former FBI director, James Comey, White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, White House assistant press secretary, Michael Short and last but not least, former White House Chief of Office, Reince Preibus, who was actually dimissed a few days before Scaramucci, on July 28th. Trump announced on his Twitter that he would dismiss Preibus and John Kelly would take over.
This series of changes have caused a flurry of concerns to emerge such as whether this staff shake-up would result in an unstable administration and if the public would lose trust and support for the Republicans. As such, this may mean that previous commitment to a series of policies such as healthcare reform, tax reform, economic stimulus policies may be delayed.
[Chad Morganlander, Washington Crossing] "The White House is disfunctional unfortunately. We are not forecasting for 2017 a fiscal plan to go through or a tax plan to go through. Potentially we get one done in the early part of 2018."
The market has also expressed disappointment with the Trump adminstration. When Trump announced the dismissal of Reince Preibus, former White House Chief of Office, on the 28th July, U.S. stocks took a quick dip and recorded a decline for two consecutive days.
Furthermore, when Trump's dismissal of Scaramucci's was announced, the dollar took on a further dip overnight, causing the Euro, against the dollar, to hit a two-year high. However, the dollar, against the yen, plunged to a new 1.5 months low. All of these market reactions are due to concerns of Trump being unable to unify the party. So far, apart from signing several administrative orders, Trump has not yet fulfilled any one of his campaign promises on economic stimulus.
Besides, there are now more concerns on whether there would be further changes in the Trump's administration. These concerns are now extended to Rex Tillerson, U.S Secretary of State, Herbert McMaster, United States National Security Advisor Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist and Robert Mueller, FBI Director, all of whom may face the risk of being fired or resignation. If this staff shake-up persists, it is very likely that Trump-related stocks and the U.S stocks would be under pressure.
CNBC's Qian reporting from Singapore.