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The White House announced on Friday, December 8, that Dina Powell will be leaving the Trump administration in early 2018. Powell currently holds two roles in the White House Office; she is both deputy national security advisor for strategy and the senior counselor to the president for economic initiatives. Powell previously worked in the White House as head of the Office of Presidential Personnel under George W. Bush and served as assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from 2005 to 2007. On Wednesday, December 13, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced that Omarosa Manigault Newman would be leaving her position as assistant to the president and director of communications in the White House Office of Public Liaison, effective January 20, 2018. Manigault Newman achieved fame in 2004 by appearing in the first season of NBC’s reality series The Apprentice, hosted by Donald Trump.

 

On December 12, President Trump announced that he will nominate Andrea Thompson to be under secretary for arms control and international security at the Department of State. Thompson, a retired Army Col., is currently a special advisor in the department’s Office of Policy Planning. She previously served as national security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence. From 2015 to 2016, Thompson was a national security advisor to the Committee on Homeland Security in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Dakota and master’s degrees from Long Island University and the National Defense University.

 

On December 5, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Emily Webster Murphy to be administrator of the United States General Services Administration (GSA). Murphy is a longtime procurement professional, having led the Federal Supply Services-Federal Technology Service merger during the Bush administration and having served as policy director and counsel for the House Small Business Committee. Murphy inherits a number of controversial past GSA decisions, including canceling the search for a new FBI headquarters and granting the Trump International Hotel a lease in a government-held building.

 

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