♪ the woug post reports that a group of senior staffers in the white house have been sidelined by president trump himself. the president is reportedly calling all of the shots. joining us to discuss, cnn political analyst john avlon and david gregory. john avlon, he's the president, obviously he can call all the shots. >> yes. >> the point is there's the white house communications director position that was vacated by hope hicks when she left has now been empty for two months, so he's running the communications shop and he has filled his staff with people who are more in lock step with him philosophically. so what's the upshot? >> what could possibly go wrong? the whole point of having advisers is so you have perspective from people beyond your own mellon. and this president seems to just double down wanting a self-re-enforcing strategy. the president should pay attention to the country, not his communications shop. for him, the two are really