Trump came to the White House with fewer entrenched political relationships than most recent presidents. The Republican strategist he has known the longest — Roger Stone, possibly the next domino to fall in Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe — never worked on the campaign or in the administration in any official capacity.

Another longtime Trump friend in politics, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is now a personal attorney and television surrogate for things Mueller-related.

Filling this vacuum was a cast of characters whose relationships to Trump were briefer and who were either interested in ideological goals (Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, Michael Anton) or gaining positions they probably could not acquire working for a more established politician (Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski, and even Conway were unlikely to ever run an American presidential campaign).