Don't bother replacing Sarah Sanders – there's no point

The imminent resignation of Sarah Sanders as Donald Trump’s press secretary marks yet another departure from a White House that treats chaos as its modus operandi. On the left, there is understandable crowing – Sanders, like her predecessor Sean Spicer, often lied to the press and served as a mouthpiece for an administration that has made it its mission to punish immigrants and the poor.

One of the most startling, precedent-breaking aspects of Sanders’ regime as press secretary was her decision to end the regular White House press briefings where decades of White House reporters held presidential administrations to account.

Related: Tweets, lies and the Mueller report: Sarah Sanders' lowest moments

Some media watchers believe journalists should keep battling for this kind of access – that Sanders is a unique failure as a press secretary and her most egregious decisions will hopefully be remedied by another person or approach.

Here’s the problem: as long as Trump occupies the Oval Office, the role of press secretary has no purpose.

Trump regards the institution of journalism as another prop to campaign against, interchangeable with the Democrats, undocumented immigrants, or the so-called globalists. The rules of engagement between the media and the president have long been obliterated. As the press critic Jay Rosen has argued, the media is, for Trump, simply a hate object. The fact that Trump may be compelled to ramble to a reporter on the telephone once in a while does not change this fact, and journalists who don’t recognize this new status quo are naive.

At least for now, the simple reality is there is no point to a White House press secretary. This may feel like a radical notion: we’ve been trained to believe all powerful leaders should designate deputies to deliver relatively reliable information to the public. In turn, reporters get the opportunity to question this deputy, who functions as a stand-in for the principal. Deputy and principal collaborate on a “message”. Whether it was Barack Obama’s Jay Carney or George W Bush’s Ari Fleischer, there was the understanding these press secretaries could substitute for their bosses in a briefing room, relaying matters of policy or clarifying important opinions.

Trump has changed all of that. There is no Trump White House as we classically understand the term. There is a president – Trump – and people who work for him but cannot speak for him. Trump has proven that he will constantly contradict his aides and himself, speaking purely from impulse. He has no use for policy briefings or any attempt at reflective thought. He misleads, he bluffs, he outright lies, and he changes his mind whenever he feels like it. Sanders, a capable enough Republican operative thrust into a role she never should have held, could not keep up – because no one can channel Trump’s id but Trump. For better or worse, he is his own press secretary.

Trump may deign to assign someone to replace Sanders, and he or she may even reintroduce regular press briefings. But my advice to my fellow journalists is: ignore the briefings, if they ever return at all.

The White House cannot be a purveyor of remotely credible information. No one can claim to speak consistently for a president who invents new realities on a whim. Consider his almighty border wall: sometimes it’s almost finished, sometimes the obstructionist Democrats blocked it, sometimes the pieces are about to fall into place. What press secretary can be trusted to say anything coherent about Trump’s intentions on any policy or political matter? Why bother?

Trump can do us all a favor by naming no replacement for Sanders. As long as Trump is in office, the role of press secretary is a farce and a distraction. The next occupant would only peddle the illusion that there is a rationale to a press briefing under Trump. We will exhaust ourselves with more outrage over the absurdity of the performance.

Better to focus elsewhere, on the machinations and policy edicts of the vast bureaucratic apparatus that Trump’s other appointees are already radically reshaping, whether it’s the Department of Education or the Interior. Someday, another president will install a press secretary who can communicate to the public with a modicum of honesty and coherence. Only then should journalists bother showing up.

• Ross Barkan is a writer and journalist in New York City