This Jan. 28 photo shows President Trump speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office, surrounded, from left, by then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Pence, then-chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, then-press secretary Sean Spicer and then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Barely a week into his presidency, Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office, surrounded by top-ranking members of his team at the time: Vice President Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, national security adviser Michael Flynn, chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and press secretary Sean Spicer.
Drew Angerer, a Getty photographer, captured the moment and in a caption described the men present as members of Trump’s “inner circle.”
The circle now includes only Pence. Everyone else is gone.
The original image was a memorable one, not only because the first diplomatic conversation between Trump and Putin was historically significant but also because the photo underscored the lack of diversity in the highest ranks of the president’s team.
The photo appeared at the top of a Feb. 5 Washington Post story under the following headline: “Trump’s administration isn’t very diverse. Photo ops make it glaringly obvious.”
Flynn and Priebus have been replaced by white men, but Spicer’s successor is a white woman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. We don’t yet know who will assume the chief strategist’s title from Bannon but, if nothing else, the White House shake-ups have resulted in some diversification of this previously all-male cast.
President Trump decided to get rid of chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, after weeks of White House upheaval and racial unrest. (Peter Stevenson,Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)