Sources: Mulvaney Favored to Replace Kelly as Trump's Chief of Staff

Despite official denials, sources in the Trump administration privately agreed on Thursday it will be a relatively short period — perhaps in two or three weeks — before John Kelly retires as White House chief of staff.

The same sources agreed that the favorite to succeed him as President Donald Trump’s right-hand man is Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Speculation on Mulvaney’s moving into the West Wing of the White House was heightened Thursday, during a dinner hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington. Mulvaney was the keynote speaker, but ducked encounters with any reporters because “they all wanted to ask about the chief of staff stuff,” a CEI official told us.

An administration spokesman earlier dismissed as “inaccurate” a report in The Wall Street Journal that the president was discussing possible successors to Kelly.

Trump reportedly considered accepting Kelly’s resignation at least once since the retired U.S. Marine general became his top aide a year ago. At the time — following reports of spousal abuse by then-White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter after he had been okayed for the job by Kelly — Trump also seriously contemplated naming Mulvaney to replace Kelly.

But the president finally opted to keep Kelly on the job.

Asked as he was leaving the White House Friday how long Kelly would remain as chief of staff, President Trump told reporters: "That I can't tell you. But I can say we've had a very good relationship, and we've achieved a lot...I like John a lot. I like him and I respect him."

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.”