The White House may appoint a senior policy adviser with hardline views on immigration, who recently sparred with reporters in a televised briefing, as its new communications director.
Stephen Miller, a top aide and speechwriter for US President Donald Trump, is a candidate to lead the White House's communications team after a series of personnel changes in the more than six months that Mr Trump has been President.
The official did not say how many people were on the short list, but the Axios news site reported on Saturday Mr Miller was not the top contender.
Mr Miller wrote Mr Trump's inauguration speech. Not long after, he made headlines when he said the "powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned", following the courts' rejection of the administration's Muslim travel ban.
On Wednesday he clashed with a CNN reporter, accusing the network of having a "cosmopolitan bias". Mr Miller's choice of words has been criticised as echoing those of white nationalists and even Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Mr Miller also has a reported history of working with Richard Spencer, the white nationalist who infamously got punched live on camera.
Last week, Mr Trump ousted White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci over an obscene tirade to a New Yorker magazine writer only 10 days after he was appointed, leaving the position vacant.
Retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, the new chief of staff who sources said was seeking to impose order on a White House riven with factions and backbiting, is said to have recommended the move.
Reuters / Newshub.
