Budget director now acting chief of staff
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday named Mick Mulvaney, currently the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the White House chief of staff in an acting capacity.
Mulvaney replaces John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general whom Trump ousted as chief of staff last week. The appointment caps Trump’s extraordinary week-long public search for his third chief of staff in two years.
“I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.”
Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, is one of the more ideologically conservative members of Trump’s Cabinet. He was elected to the House in 2010 as a member of the tea party movement and was known for his professed support of fiscal conservatism.
Mulvaney, 51, has held several hats in the Trump administration. He has served as budget director since the beginning, but also held the role of acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through much of the past year.
Trump’s selection of Mulvaney comes after several candidates announced publicly that they were not interested in the position. After meeting with Trump for more than one hour at the White House residence on Thursday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that he had taken himself out of consideration.
Nick Ayers, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, was offered the job by Trump last weekend but declined.