The inevitable ouster of Mick Mulvaney

President Donald Trump announced on Friday night that Rep. Mark Meadows will become the new White House chief of staff, a dramatic reshuffling of his senior aides in the midst of the growing coronavirus crisis affecting the United States and the world.

  Politico

He was leaving Congress anyway.

Meadows’ resignation from the House will open up his western North Carolina House seat just months before this year’s election. His retirement last December — just days before the filing deadline to run for the seat — roiled the state’s GOP political scene, with some Republicans speculating he may have timed his announcement to preclude state lawmakers from running and benefit his desired replacement, a charge Meadows disputed.

[...]

Meadows, a conservative North Carolina Republican who helped overthrow one Republican speaker, considered getting rid of another and pushed Trump into a disastrous government shutdown over funding his border wall, will be Trump’s fourth chief of staff in just over three years in office.

[...]

It’s a most remarkable turn for the 60-year old Meadows, who in the eyes of his detractors has few qualifications for the post besides a talent for disruption, obstruction and obfuscation.

But so far Meadows has only sucked up and praised Trump, so who cares what he wrecks? Let's see how long HE lasts.

Meadows was first elected in 2012, formed the Freedom Caucus with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in 2014 and was the man who went to the floor to seek to remove John Boehner from the speakership in the summer of 2015.

[...]

Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff for the last 14 months, will become envoy to Northern Ireland.

He can't even stay in the country.  LOL.

Trump is now on his fourth Chief of Staff in as many years.

UPDATE:

I missed the nuance

"Acting" Chief of Staff.




"For the record" he couldn't find anyone willing to take it.  Not Nick Ayers, not Jared, not even Chris Christie.  Hell, Rick Santorum went on TV and said he wouldn't take it, even though he hadn't even been asked.  (What a loser.  How is he still around?)  And, the story is Mulvaney was at the White House for a meeting about the budget when he was asked if he'd take the job.

You can tell so much about West Wing dynamics by the way Trump announced Mick Mulvaney — already wearing two hats as White House budget director and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — as his acting chief of staff.

Trump blurted out his decision with a 5:18 p.m. Friday tweet, amid coverage of how few top people wanted the job.

[...]

Trump keeps control and doesn't fully empower his guy, reminding Mulvaney who the real chief of staff is: No funny business like General John Kelly tried to pull, restricting enablers' access to POTUS.

[...]

A senior administration official who spoke to reporters at the White House said: "There’s no time limit." Asked why Mulvaney was named "acting," the official said: "Because that’s what the president wants."

A White House statement last night said: "Mick Mulvaney will not resign from the Office Of Management and Budget, but will spend all of his time devoted to his role as the acting Chief Of Staff for the President. Russ Vought will handle day to day operations and run OMB."

  Axios

"Because that's what the president wants."

Two sources told NBC that Mulvaney was the one who requested the "acting" title. One person told NBC that Mulvaney wanted to step into the role with a safe exit in place, if needed.

  CNBC

Fake news, I'm sure.

"Mick Mulvaney will not resign from the Office of Management and Budget, but will spend all of his time devoted to his role as the acting chief of staff for the president," Sanders said. "Russ Vought will handle day to day operations and run OMB."

  CBS

Apparently, last week some time the Senate approved Kathy Kraninger as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but why not promote the acting director of the OMB to director if it's true that Mulvaney will be spending "all of his itme devoted to his role as the acting chief of staff" ?  He must feel a bit slighted.

The Kansas City Star has the list of the "many" people who actually did want the job:

British journalist Piers Morgan suggested he would be a good fit in an op-ed for The Daily Mail, while former major league slugger Jose Canseco tweeted his interest to Trump.

[...]

When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited the White House this week, he insisted it was merely to see the Christmas decorations.

  Kansas City Star

 Also, Stephen Colbert on his comedy show suggested he'd take the job because it would be "fun".

UPDATE:

Also...



So now he's the right hand man to a terrible human being.  Nice.

Pathetic

LOL. Loser.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hmmmmm.....

Maybe there's more to Christie's rejection of the CoS position than he let on.



Good one @6igyak!

Tweet announcement

So, who's going to be Director of OMB?  Or do we not need one?

Is it going to be Kellyanne?

If so, that could be the straw that broke the camel's back in the Conway household.



 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Even Chris Christie is too smart to take the job

I guess I have to take back my post saying he was the only whore who'd do it.



Many people want this great position.

Kelly must be chuckling his way to the end of the year.

If Jared won't take it, it may be down to Ivanka.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Christie may get the position by default

And that would be the icing on the cake: landing a position because nobody else wanted it.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Even Christie has turned it down.  Sad!

Trump could be preparing to screw another whore

President Trump on Thursday met with former Republican Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) amid his search for the next White House chief of staff, according to an Axios report.

A source told Axios that the president is considering Christie because he’s “tough” and “politically-savvy.”

  The Hill

In a way, he's already screwing Christie. First, leading him on during the campaign to think he might be chosen for VP, then thinking he might be chosen to the cabinet. More recently, he was led on to think he might be chosen to replace Jeff Sessions, and now, he's gotten as far as an actual interview about the Chief of Staff position. Jared won't like it. I'll be surprised if it happens.

But, Jesus, Christie...you suck hard, and it never gets you anything. Have you no pride?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Who will be the new Chief of Staff?

YWA, December 11:  Hey, what about Jared Kushner? He's not doing anything useful. 

HuffPo, December 13:

Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and already an official White House adviser, met with Trump Wednesday about the job, a top Republican close to the White House told HuffPost. He and two others close to Trump or the White House who confirmed Kushner’s interest in the position did so on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s staffing considerations freely.

Kushner has been pushing his own candidacy with Trump, citing his work on a criminal justice reform package and a claimed ability to work with Democrats, one person said. “I don’t know why he thinks that, when the Democrats are mainly going to be coming after Trump,” the source said.

  HuffPo

He thinks that because he's just as arrogantly deluded about his own talent and self-worth as his father-in-law.

It is unclear who the five finalists Trump claimed he was looking at are. Former deputy campaign manager David Bossie is scheduled to have lunch with Trump Friday at the White House. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is also thought to be under consideration, while Trump is soliciting names from the legal community in New York City, where he lived his entire life before winning the presidency in 2016.

After Ayers turned the job down, Trump tried to recruit Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, top economic adviser Larry Kudlow and North Carolina Republican Congressman Mark Meadows, all of whom declined, one source said.

But Trump told us everybody wants the job. I'm sure that's fake news.

Kushner and his wife Ivanka ― known derisively by White House critics as “Javanka” ― face considerable opposition from both inside and outside the West Wing because of concerns about nepotism as well as worries about Kushner’s judgment.

Hey, give him a shot. Why not. I'm sure among the three of them, Kushner, Ivanka and Trump can run this country - indeed, the world - quite well on their own.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus Wept

Which is why I fired him, of course.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Whoomp! There It Is

I wonder if he had the courtesy to tell Priebus before he tweeted.*

Yeah, so now who's going to be Homeland Security Secretary?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

*UPDATE 7/29:  The answer to that is "no".

Another Bankster at the White House

When President Obama last January announced the departure of Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff, many liberals were furious that his replacement was the Midwest Chairman of JP Morgan and Boeing Director William Daley, who was also an opponent of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a critic of Obama’s health care bill as too leftist.

[...]

Yesterday, the White House announced Daley’s departure — he will now co-Chair Obama’s re-election campaign, which basically means raising huge amounts of money from his Wall Street friends.

  Glenn Greenwald

You can’t say President #Compromise isn’t forward thinking when he chooses his appointments.

So let’s have a look at the new Chief of Staff, Jacob Lew (previously serving as a top aide to Hillary Clinton).

President Barack Obama's choice to lead the White House budget office oversaw a Citigroup unit that profited off the housing collapse and financial crisis by investing in a hedge fund king who correctly predicted the eventual subprime meltdown and now finds himself involved in the center of the U.S. government's fraud case against Goldman Sachs.

[...]

[His unit made] investments in a hedge fund that bet on the housing market to collapse -- a reality suffered by millions of American homeowners.

[...]

That sounds pretty nasty, doesn't it?" said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a group that monitors the budget office. "Any activity and any player that contributed to the economic calamity needs to be looked at.

"We already got enough players in this administration that certainly were key players in the economic malaise that we currently have," Bass continued. "Why shouldn't we have another one?" he said with a slight chuckle.

But Bass added that he thought Lew was an otherwise excellent choice for the position, noting that as budget director Lew has a proven track record (he held the position during part of the Clinton administration).

  Huffington Post

Sure. Crooks can be good at their regular jobs, can’t they?

"Obviously, Jack has been through a vetting process before," [WH Press Sec Robert] Gibbs told a reporter who had asked whether Obama ever questioned Lew about his work at Citigroup. Gibbs eventually said he didn't know.

Asked if Lew's time at Citigroup was "relevant" and whether it would be "relevant" during his next confirmation hearing, Gibbs said that "those questions have been dealt with."

Indeed.

And, as a result of Lew’s unit’s losses, Citi got that huge bailout ($45 billion) from the taxpayers, Lew himself receiving a $1 billion salary and a $900,000 post-bailout bonus.

And why would Obama question Lew about his work at Citigroup? He already knows. They just shuffle these guys around amongst themselves up there in the Big House.

In case you’ve forgotten, Mother Jones listed the banksters and financial fraudsters who were brought directly from their roles in the financial collapse into the Obama administration. You can read it here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.