The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump names budget director Mulvaney acting chief of staff
President 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 F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general who Trump ousted as chief of staff last week. The appointment caps Trump’s extraordinary weeklong 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 distinc- tion,” Trump wrote on Twit- ter. “Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.”
Trump added, “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!”
Mulvaney, a former Repub- lican congressman from South Carolina, is one of the more ideologically conser- vative members of Trump’s Cabinet. He was elected to the House in 2010 as a member of the tea party move- ment 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 former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said earlier Friday that he asked the president not to consider him as White House chief of staff.
“I have told the president that now is not the right time for me or my family to undertake this serious assignment,” Christie said in a statement. “As a result, I have asked him to no longer keep me in any of his con- siderations for this post.”
Christie had been Trump’s leading candidate as the pres- ident considers a successor to John Kelly, according to two people familiar with the matter. Instead, he would become the latest person to turn down one of the most powerful jobs in Washington.
Trump met with Chris- tie in the White House residence on Thursday after a holiday reception. The president announced Kelly’s departure last weekend without arranging a replace- ment, leading to a chaotic and hasty job search after his top choice, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers, turned down the post.
Trump had lunch on Friday with another candidate for the job, his former dep- uty campaign manager David Bossie.
Other people Trump con- sidered for the job include Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Blackstone Group executive Wayne Berman, people familiar with the matter have said.
Trump announced Kelly’s departure from the White House on Saturday and had intended to install Nick Ayers, the 36-year-old former political consultant helming the vice president’s staff, as the next chief. But Ayers said he’d only be willing to do the job on an interim basis after promising his family he would return to Georgia, while the president wanted a top lieutenant who would serve for the remainder of his first term.
Trump has sought to dispel the notion that Ayers spurned him, insisting he’s been approached by a dozen potential candidates who wanted the job.
Rep. Mark Meadows, the North Carolina congressman who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, initially expressed interest in the job, but Trump told him he’d prefer Meadows remain in Congress.