12/11/2018

JOHN KELLY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WHITE HOUSE STAFF: “President Trump extended his timeline on Tuesday [12-11-18] for choosing a new chief of staff to succeed John F. Kelly, telling reporters that he was in ‘no rush’ and that the search process could drag on for weeks as the White House scrambles to find a suitable candidate to lead the West Wing at a pivotal moment…Mr. Trump added that it would take another ‘week or two’ to make a decision, citing a period of time he often invokes but almost never sticks to. The extended timeline is the latest sign of how Mr. Trump was caught on his back foot after his top candidate for the position, Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, declined to agree to the terms of the job that the president requested. On Saturday [12-8-18], after he announced Mr. Kelly’s departure, Mr. Trump told reporters that he planned to announce a successor ‘over the next day or two,’ and top White House aides like Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were telling allies that Mr. Ayers was a done deal.”

Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman, “Trump in ‘No Rush’ to Fill Chief of Staff Job,” The New York Times online, December 11, 2018