12/10/2018

TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WHITE HOUSE STAFF: “President Donald Trump was hunting for a new chief of staff Monday [12-10-18], a day after the leading candidate for the job unexpectedly dropped out of the running and set off a new round of staffing confusion at the White House. After White House aide Nick Ayers told Trump on Sunday [12-9-18] that he would not accept the post, speculation centered on Monday around one of the president’s preferred options for the position, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). Following a CNN report that Meadows had told associates he was ‘absolutely not’ interested in the job, the conservative House Freedom Caucus chairman sounded more positive in a statement to POLITICO’s Playbook PM…But aides stressed that the chief of staff search was still in its early stages, with one person close to the White House saying Trump was forced to start from square one after Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, withdrew. Over the course of the day, a slew of names were zipping around Washington, with Republicans insisting that key candidates were under serious contention only to have others privately dismiss them altogether.”

Andrew Restuccia, Darren Samuelsohn and Nancy Cook, “Trump scrambles to find a new chief of staff,” Politico, December 10, 2018 6:56 pm