With Ayers Out, OMB's Mulvaney Favored to Move Up As Trump's Chief of Staff

With controversy brewing Sunday afternoon over the likely appointment of Nick Ayers as White House Chief of Staff, Ayers — 36, top aide to Vice President Mike Pence and a high-powered political consultant — has reportedly removed himself from consideration as President Trump’s right hand man.

Almost as soon as Ayers was out, then talk started in official Washington over the Administration figure once considered a sure bet to succeed departing Chief of Staff John Kelly: Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman, is the favorite of the White House staff—many of whom resented the idea of high-powered political consultant Ayers taking over the chief of staff job.

“A campaign manager as chief of staff to a President is a bad idea, because there is a big difference between campaigning and governing.” Chris Whipple, author of a much-praised book, "The Gatekeepers," on White House Chiefs of Staff, told Newsmax. He cited the late Hamilton Jordan, who ran Jimmy Carter’s 1976 bid for President and then served as chief of staff, as an example of a political type who can’t make the transition to overseeing policy.

Along with Mulvaney, others mentioned for chief of staff portfolio include Rep. Mark Meadows, R.-N.C., head of the House Freedom Caucus, and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.

By most accounts, Trump and Mulvaney have excellent working and personal relationships and the president is reportedly impressed by his OMB’s director hard work, loyalty and ability to defend the administration’s budget policy before the White House press corps.

Mulvaney is also a former three-term U.S. representative from South Carolina and is well respected on Capitol Hill.

“Mick is as smart as a whip and very savvy,” former South Carolina Rep. and U.S. Court of Claims Judge John Napier told Newsmax, “If President Trump were to choose him as chief of staff, he has the potential to do for President Trump what Jim Baker did for President Reagan or Leon Panetta did President Clinton.”