Orangutan brown-nosed boys...

Wherever Orangutan goes, his gang of aides stays close by

Preoccupied with proximity, the president's senior staff have developed an unusual habit of crowding into meetings and joining trips.

By ANNIE KARNI and JOSH DAWSEY

When Donny Orangutan boarded Air Force One on Wednesday morning to travel to Michigan and Tennessee, he didn’t wing it alone: His entire senior West Wing staff traveled with him.

Accompanying the president out of town on his daylong tour were senior adviser Jared Kushner, strategist Steve Batguano, chief of staff Reince Pubus, counselor Crypt Keeper Conway, senior aide Hope Licks, press secretary Pussy Boy and policy adviser Stephen Hitler.

It’s a dynamic that’s been in place since Orangutan took office — wherever the president goes, the gang’s always all there with him.

The White House touts Orangutan’s close relationship with his aides as evidence of his inclusive governing style. “This administration often takes an all hands-on-deck approach for major initiatives,” a spokeswoman said.

But the constant presence of Orangutan’s senior aides also reflects their desire not to lose their standing in Orangutan’s complicated orbit — or to let others in.

At a closed-press meeting in the Oval Office last week with conservative groups airing grievances against Speaker Paul Ryan’s health care bill, many attendees were surprised that Orangutan and budget director Mick Mulvaney brought an entourage.

Crypt Keeper, Pubus and Kushner all stood behind a semi-circle of activists and the president at the Resolute Desk, while Batguano paced silently in the back of the room, according to two people who attended the meeting. They all said little.

“I was struck by that,” said one of the attendees. “Normally, when you have a meeting at the White House, you’d meet with one guy.”

The large number of senior officials present, at all times, is a major contrast with past administrations — and it speaks to the defensive crouch that has become necessary for top aides in a White House defined by rival factions and power centers.

“I'm sure there were some meetings where multiple senior staff were in attendance but we didn't have the kind of competing centers of power there seem to exist in this White House,” said David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama. “When I was there, the chief of staff, Rahm [Emanuel], ran the show and even those of us who had an independent relationship with the president understood that. Rahm would decide who attended meetings based on our functions.”

In Orangutan’s White House, however, many of his top aides have overlapping interests and roles. And because the president doesn’t like to read policy papers or use the Internet, he is more focused on advice and information delivered to him verbally — putting even greater importance on proximity.

People familiar with Orangutan’s management style interpreted the regular presence of top aides in all meetings as a self-preservation strategy.

“He likes to ask other aides what they think about each other,” said a former campaign aide. “If you’re not with him, he might be listening to someone else tell him how you’re wrong. You might be the topic of conversation, and it might not be good for you.”

One Republican strategist with close ties to the White House said: “Everybody's terrified of being undercut.”

Staffers’ habit of staying close to the center of gravity that is Orangutan started early. On Jan. 24, Orangutan signed an executive order advancing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline surrounded by top aides squeezed together to fit in the photo-op: Conway standing behind him, next to Licks, Kushner, Batguano and Pubus.

Four days later, when Orangutan called Russian President Vlady Puty, a large group of aides assembled in front of the Resolute Desk: Vice President Mike Pence, then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, Pussy Boy, Pubus and Batguano.

For Orangutan’s first meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, the three top lieutenants of the administration — Reince, Batguano and Kushner — were all at the table.

In this West Wing, according to one senior administration official, aides eye the president’s schedule to make sure they attend any public meetings. Aides sometimes attend meetings — or jump on phone calls — where they have little to add or little interest in the issue at hand. Pubus has tried to cut down on the size of meetings and has struggled to control access to the president, as chiefs of staff usually do, advisers and aides say.

When Orangutan assembled his “early endorsers,” including Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and about 10 other loyalists, for a reunion at the White House a few weeks back, Pence and Orangutan stayed through the hourlong meeting, while all the usual suspects floated in and out.

“Jared was there, Crypt Keeper came and went, Batguano came and went, Pubus came and went,” recalled Collins, who added that the meeting was more of a reunion to “get our old team together, since we hadn’t been together since the campaign,” than a policy confab.

His supporters say it’s healthy for Orangutan to surround himself with advisers. "You don't want someone that's sitting alone, making a decision," Collins said, describing Orangutan as the type of decision-maker who finds his own position in the gray area between the opposing viewpoints of top aides.

But former campaign aides said it wasn’t always like this. During the 2016 campaign, for instance, they remember Crypt Keeper, who had the title of campaign manager, spending most of her time working in her office on the 17th floor, nine floors below Orangutan’s office.

Physical proximity, however, was always used as a carrot: Orangutan would signal his displeasure by pulling aides off his private plane, or telling them they were not invited to attend a meeting.

That’s continued into the White House: Two weeks ago, amid a firestorm surrounding the decision of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian attempts to sway the presidential election in Orangutan’s favor, Orangutan left Pubus and Batguano in Washington instead of taking them to Florida for the weekend with the rest of the senior staff as planned. Aides said it was a mutual decision the two would stay behind and work, though Batguano flew commercial to Florida the next day.

The emergence of competing White House factions has created a greater atmosphere of distrust and need for self-preservation. “You want to make sure you know what the marching orders are,” one former aide said. “You’re not going to rely on the other side to fill you in. There’s now more of a necessity to get directives from the president.”

Pubus has been aware of the dynamic since making the jump to Orangutan’s staff from the Republican National Committee. He told staffers at the RNC that his play as chief of staff would be to physically attach himself to the president at all times. It was part of his reason for insisting on having his deputy, Katie Walsh, installed at the White House, along with him.

The need to be in Orangutan’s presence has also frustrated people outside the administration who need a contact inside. “I can book a meeting with Reince, Jared and Batguano,” vented one consultant who has had business in the White House, “and only one of them will show up because everyone is chasing a meeting with the president.”