JOHN KELLY/MICK MULVANEY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WHITE HOUSE STAFF: “Outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly tried and failed to bring a military discipline to the West Wing. Mick Mulvaney doesn’t plan to try. Mulvaney will approach the job far differently than Kelly, according to six sources close to the Trump aide and Republicans close to the White House. Most notably, he intends to give Trump more leeway to act as he chooses — a recognition that trying to control Trump is a futile approach. Mulvaney will adopt a much larger role in politics and messaging, and plans to take a more laissez-faire approach to some quirks of the Trump White House that irked Kelly — like nonessential staffers attending meetings, or the president frequently reaching out to longtime friends, Republican lawmakers and advisers for advice or dinners in the White House residence. At one point, Mulvaney told an ally he thought Kelly did a disservice to the president by constantly saying ‘no.’ ‘I did not take that as a sign that Mick would never push back, but he definitely had a feeling that Kelly pushed back too often and did not help the president fulfill his agenda,’ said the source close to Mulvaney.”
–Nancy Cook, “Mick Mulvaney as chief of staff: Let Trump be Trump,” Politico, December 19, 2018 7:09 pm