Never understood the preibus position. He was GOPe and borderline never Trumper. He played it down the middle and got the appointment. Hasn’t done anything to help trump.
Priebus shut down any attempts to challenge Trump at the convention. He crushed those little uprisings.
He also had the apparatus in place that Trump used for his campaign as Trump really didn’t have a national organization in place.
Priebus may have been lukewarm on Trump up to the Convention, but from that point onward, he was the best ally President Trump had.
I think that initially Trump had no choice but to bring in someone who at least was pretending to be on Trump's side. Trump needed some sort of connection to the political power people, and starting out with a staff made up entirely of outsiders who have no clue how DC works would have made the job much harder.
I can't imagine Trump pulling off things like his trips abroad, crafting of his numerous EO's, visits from foreign leaders and lots of other things WITHOUT anyone around him knowing the details of how all this stuff has to be planned and executed.
Trump's just now starting to really get a better understanding of the way it all works, and is starting to get his people (from way outside the beltway) up to speed on the workings of things so he can now start to jettison the first round of people who have served this purpose.