CABINET/MIKE PENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “As President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence prepared to gather for their weekly lunch in August 2017, the President told his staff to add two more plates. Both men had just welcomed new chiefs of staff — retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly and Nick Ayers, a then-34-year-old Republican political consultant from Georgia — and Trump decided to wave the pair into his private dining room off the Oval Office. Until then, a Cabinet member would occasionally join them, but the meals were largely a chance for Trump and Pence to spend time together alone, chatting about politics, policy and whatever popped into Trump’s mind — sometimes prompted by the television in the room tuned to Fox News. But in August 2017, the lunch went from a regular tête-à-tête to a four-man affair, one that became a more formal opportunity for the two offices to coordinate on strategy, policy and scheduling. For Ayers, Pence’s new chief of staff, they were useful in another, perhaps more important way: he now had regular face-time with the President. With each passing lunch, Trump grew to know and like Ayers more, two sources close to the President said, allowing Ayers to build a strong personal rapport that could end up paying dividends.”
–Jeremy Diamond and Elizabeth Landers, “Young, rich and loyal: Nick Ayers could be Trump’s next chief of staff,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, November 23, 2018 5:48 pm