Trump Has Named Mick Mulvaney Acting White House Chief Of Staff

Trump announced his pick on Twitter after several contenders for the job publicly took themselves out of the running.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will replace John Kelly as the acting White House chief of staff, President Donald Trump said Friday.

Trump announced his selection of Mulvaney on Twitter, saying he looked forward to working with him in his new capacity.

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. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration....

....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!

“Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration,” Trump wrote.

It isn’t clear yet what the “acting” title means or how long Mulvaney will serve in the job.

“There’s no time limit,” a senior administration official told reporters, according to the White House press pool. “He’s the acting chief of staff, which means he’s the chief of staff. He got picked because the president liked him, they get along.”

[Earlier: Who Will Be Trump’s Next Chief Of Staff? It Doesn’t Really Matter.]

The announcement comes nearly a week after Trump said Kelly, who has been Trump’s chief of staff since last July, will be leaving the White House by year’s end.

Selecting Kelly’s successor became a public spectacle, with two contenders — Nick Ayers and Chris Christie — publicly taking themselves out of contention. Hours after making the new announcement, Trump addressed all the coverage on Twitter, saying "there were MANY people" who wanted the job.

For the record, there were MANY people who wanted to be the White House Chief of Staff. Mick M will do a GREAT job!

This will be Mulvaney’s third job with the administration. He has led the OMB since February 2017 and was also acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, serving in the two roles simultaneously for almost a year.

The official told reporters that Russell Vought, deputy director of the OMB, will be Mulvaney’s replacement. Kathy Kraninger, the new director of the CFPB, was sworn in earlier this week.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Friday evening that Mulvaney was not resigning from the OMB, but would focus "all of his time" to the Chief of Staff job as Vought runs the OMB.

Prior to joining Trump's administration, Mulvaney served in Congress as a representative for South Carolina’s 5th District.


Skip to footer