![A White House staff shake-up could include a diminished role for embattled White House press secretary Sean Spicer.](/content/dam/images/g/w/f/q/p/x/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gwfqd2.png/1496042640852.jpg)
President Donald Trump and his advisers, seeking to contain the escalating Russia crisis that threatens to consume his presidency, are considering a reshuffle of his senior staff and the creation of a "war room" within the White House, according to several aides and outside Trump allies.
Following Trump's return to Washington at the weekend from a nine-day foreign trip that provided a respite from the controversy back home, the White House plans to far more aggressively combat the cascading revelations about contacts between Trump associates - including Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser - and Russia.
White House officials also are trying to find ways to revive Trump's stalled policy agenda in Congress and to more broadly overhaul the way the White House communicates with the public.
That includes proposals for more travel and campaign-style rallies nationwide so that Trump can speak directly to his supporters, as well as changes in the pace and nature of news briefings, probably including a diminished role for embattled White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
The beefed-up operation could include the return of some of Trump's more combative campaign aides, including Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as campaign manager nearly a year ago, and David Bossie, who was deputy campaign manager and made his name in politics by investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton for two decades. Both men have been part of ongoing discussions about how to build a war room that have been led in part by chief strategist Stephen Bannon.
Other Trump players who have drifted from his orbit in recent months, such as Sam Nunberg, are also being courted to play more active roles, either officially joining the White House or in an outside capacity, working through confidants of the president.
Kellyanne Conway, counsellor to the president, has been involved in related talks, including with prominent Trump backers outside Washington and on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, White House counsel Donald McGahn is considering expanding his office, and an outside legal team led by Marc Kasowitz is preparing to meet with Trump and guide him, including on whether he should continue to comment on the Russia investigations on Twitter.
Kushner has played an active role in the effort to rethink and rearrange the communications team, improve the White House's surrogate operation, and develop an internal group to respond to the influx of negative stories and revelations over the FBI's Russia inquiry, said a person with knowledge of the coming changes.
"The bottom line is they need fresh legs; they need more legs," said Barry Bennett, who served as a political adviser to Trump during the general election campaign. "They're in full-scale war, and they're thinly staffed."
As Trump has participated in meetings with world leaders in recent days, senior aides - including Bannon, Kushner and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus - have met in the White House to discuss a potential reshuffle.
Kushner's role has emerged as a particularly sensitive topic of discussion within the White House, as his actions have come under increasing scrutiny in the FBI investigation of Russian meddling in the presidential election.
The president's lawyers have urged Trump not to write adversarial Twitter messages or make off-the-cuff comments about the Russia investigations, explaining that those utterances could further hurt him if it seems as though he's trying to obstruct the inquiries.
Underscoring the uncertainty of what lies ahead, some Trump associates said there had been conversations about dispatching Priebus to serve as ambassador to Greece - his mother is of Greek descent - as a face-saving way to remove him from the White House.
The president has expressed frustration - both publicly and privately - with his communications team, ahead of the expected overhaul.
Although no final decisions have been made, one option being discussed is having Spicer - who has been parodied on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" - take a more behind-the-scenes role and give up his daily on-camera briefings.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, is being considered as a replacement behind the lectern. White House aides also have talked about having a rotating cast of staff brief the media.
The Washington Post