Senior Trump aide and key player in North Korea summit eyeing White House exit: report

Joseph Hagin, the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, is planning to leave the White House soon. 

The Washington Post reported late Wednesday night that Hagin, who was in Singapore earlier this week helping to arrange an upcoming summit between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, could leave soon after returning from the meeting.

According to the Post, Hagin is eyeing the CIA’s deputy director post, which was left empty after its former occupant, Gina Haspel, was confirmed as the agency’s director in May. 

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Post that there were no immediate personnel changes to be announced. 

Hagin took the deputy chief of staff role the day Trump was inaugurated in 2017. He held the same title from 2001 until 2008 under former President George W. Bush.

Like chief of staff John Kelly, the Post reported, Hagin sought to impose order on a free-wheeling White House staff that was often roiled by chaos and competing factions.

He has been a key player in the administration’s preparations for the June 12 summit between Trump and Kim, which will mark the first ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and North Korean leader.

Hagin traveled to Singapore last month with a delegation of U.S. officials, but returned after the North Koreans didn’t show up to the meeting. Trump scrapped the planned summit in late May, citing Pyongyang’s “hostilities” towards the U.S.

But the prospect for a meeting reemerged last week, following a flurry of diplomatic activity between the U.S. and North Korea.

Hagin traveled to Singapore once again over Memorial Day weekend to make arrangements and negotiate logistics for the summit.