The Latest: Trump denies that few want chief of staff job
Posted December 11, 2018 5:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WASHINGTON — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s chief of staff (all times local):
8:55 a.m.
President Donald Trump is disputing news reports that he’s having a hard time finding a new White House chief of staff.
In a tweet Tuesday disparaging the reports as “fake,” Trump says many people, “over ten, are vying for and wanting the White House Chief of Staff position.”
He asks: “Why wouldn’t someone want one of the truly great and meaningful jobs in Washington?”
Trump is scrambling to find a new chief of staff after his first choice – Nick Ayers, the vice-president’s chief of staff – backed out at the last minute and several other potential candidates signalled they weren’t interested in the job.
Trump announced Saturday that John Kelly, the current chief of staff, would leave the White House at the end of the year.
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12:24 a.m.
Filling the spot of White House chief of staff has turned into a scramble with no clear front-runner.
President Donald Trump is getting opinions on a list of candidates, among them his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, as well as North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows.
Some people who are cropping up in the free-for-all discussion of possible successors to outgoing chief of staff John Kelly appear to be pulling themselves out of consideration.
White House chief of staff is widely acknowledged to be a demanding job in the best of circumstances. Trump’s mercurial personality and his resistance to being managed make the position a unique challenge.
Kelly’s replacement was believed to be Vice-President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, but Ayers pulled out of consideration over the weekend.
The Associated Press
