Getty White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer speaks during the daily press briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 31, 2017 in Washington, DC.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned on Friday after working for President Donald Trump for six months. So how unusual is it for a press secretary to resign just 182 days into his term? How long do press secretaries typically serve in the White House, and does Sean Spicer now hold the record for shortest time in office?
Typically, White House press secretaries end up serving for at least a year and usually longer, with the average length being 2.9 years. There is no set term for those who hold this position, but rarely does one leave the job as quickly as Spicer did. For comparison, Barack Obama’s first press secretary served for a little over two years; his second press secretary served for over three years; and his third press secretary served for two years and seven months.
There have been five press secretaries in history who served less time than Spicer did, but all of them had pretty good reasons for leaving.
The shortest length of time anyone ever served as press secretary (not counting those who served temporarily as acting press secretary) was 31 days. Jerald terHorst took office in August 1974 and left the following month, resigning in protest of President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon.
“I cannot in good conscience support your decision to pardon former President Nixon even before he has been charged with the commission of any crime,” he wrote to Gerald Ford in his resignation letter, according to The New York Times. “As your spokesman, I do not know how I could credibly defend that action in the absence of a like decision to grant absolute pardon to the young men who evaded Vietnam military service as a matter of conscience and the absence of pardons for former aides and associates of Mr. Nixon who have been charged with crimes — and imprisoned — stemming from the same Watergate situation.”
Most of the other press secretaries who have served less time than Spicer left because a new person became president. Jonathan W. Daniels was in office for 47 days, leaving not longer after Harry Truman became president following the death of Franklin Roosevelt. Roger Tubby served 124 days, but that’s because he started the position just a few months before Dwight Eisenhower was elected president. Jake Siewert, too, served 112 days, as he assumed office not long before George W. Bush’s election.
James Brady was also someone who had a shorter term than Spicer at 68 days, but that’s because he was shot in 1981 when a gunman opened fire on President Ronald Reagan and some of his cabinet members outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel. Brady survived the shooting, and he technically remained in his press secretary position for the rest of Ronald Reagan’s term in office. But he no longer held briefings, with Larry Speakes and Marlin Fitzwater taking over as acting press secretary for rest of Reagan’s presidency.
Sean Spicer’s tenure as White House press secretary, then, was the sixth shortest in history. But he’s only the second person to ever vacate the post in less than 200 days not counting those who left due to the election of a new president or those who were shot in office.
This, of course, is hardly the first time a Trump Administration official has resigned not long after taking office. Back in February, Michael Flynn resigned as national security advisor just 24 days after the inauguration; national security advisors usually serve from somewhere between one and three years.
In May, White House Communications Director Mike Dubke resigned; this is again a position that usually lasts a few years. Earlier this month, Walter Shaub resigned as director of the Office of Government Ethics with six months left to go in his five-year term. And, of course, Sally Yates was fired as acting attorney general in January, and in May, James Comey was fired as FBI director.