White House communications director Bill Shine resigned his post Thursday evening, the White House has announced.
Shine, a former co-president of Fox News, will instead join the president’s 2020 re-election campaign as a senior adviser.
He said in a statement that serving in the Trump administration was “the most rewarding experience of my entire life” and “an honor.”
Shine joined the White House last summer, after being forced out at Fox News in the wake of several sexual harassment scandals. Shine himself was not accused of improper conduct himself when he left in 2017, but was involved in protecting and enabling those who were, including former CEO Roger Ailes and top-rated evening host Bill O’Reilly.
Shine kept a low profile at the White House, never participating in press briefings or appearing on camera to defend President Donald Trump, as other press and communications staff do.
“Bill has become a real friend and his generosity and his passion for our country will be sorely missed,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
“The President’s re-election effort just got stronger,” added Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager.
Shine did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Friday.
The announcement comes just a few days after a startling New Yorker story detailed the symbiotic relationship between the Trump White House and Fox News. New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer characterized the cabler as “the closest we’ve come to having state TV” in the United States.
Among the most shocking claims in the report was that Trump allegedly ordered former adviser Gary Cohn to meddle in a proposed Time Warner-AT&T merger.
Another alarming tidbit involved Stormy Daniels; according to The New Yorker, a Fox News reporter knew about Trump’s alleged affair with the porn actress but the outlet quashed the story.
A Fox executive reportedly told the journalist: “Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert [Murdoch, owner of Fox News] wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.”
S.V. Date contributed to this report.