New Chief of Staff Mulvaney: Trump's Cleaner

No one in Donald Trump's environment lasts long. In two years, the US President has wiped out half a dozen Cabinet members, as well as a chief strategist, two security and economic advisers, two communications directors and a spokesman, an FBI director and two chiefs of staff.

Unsurprisingly, Mick Mulvaney's new title - reported by Trump via Twitter - comes from the outset with one caveat: "Acting" White House Chief of Staff.

I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, wants to be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done outstanding job while in the administration ....

Why only provisionally, the surprised reporters wanted to know on Friday evening, after they had been sent home for the weekend: After all, the job begins in January, but must not be confirmed by the Congress - Trump has named him, finished, out , Or?

"He's Acting Chief of Staff, which means he's Chief of Staff," a Trump spokesman said, knowing no more than the reporters. He officiates, so he is.

.... I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John wants to stay until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to thank him for his service!

Trump's incumbent, non-commissar chief of staff, John Kelly, has been on paper for a long time now - the president and the frustrated Kelly, it was to be said, had not spoken to each other in weeks. Which at the same time reveals how this once central post, which Mulvaney now "takes over," eroded under Trump, to the point of irrelevance.

Mulvaney fits in perfectly. In Trump's Reibach-Rolodex he is the dresser for everything: The ultra-conservative ex-MP recently headed the US budget authority, which he made redundant redundant, and in the meantime, the Consumer Protection Office, which he dismantled as a straw man in the industry so that it only the Name after exists.

The bleeding of the US government apparatus under Trump now finds its culmination in the staff chiefs charade. Above all, Trump likes that, who says nothing and does more and more often what he wants, as blatant, confused or counterproductive as that may be.

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Ex-General Kelly, in which many had hoped for a sort of babysitter for Trump, turned out to be as hapless as predecessor Reince Priebus. He only survived longer because the military did not quit - and because he and Trump are ideological brothers, as in their radical immigration policies.

Kelly - who was photographed more and more often, as he stupidly buried his head in his hands - should only go, if a follower for the ejection seat was determined. But Trump pulled the rip cord before. But that did not speed up the search.

One candidate after another waved: Vice President Mike Pence chief of staff Nick Ayers. Finance Minister Steven Mnuchin. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Congress Insider Mark Meadows. Ex-Governor Chris Christie. It is unclear whether Christie was even asked - as a prosecutor, he had once brought the father of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for 14 months behind bars.

"I'm going to ask some really great people for the position," Trump tweeted in between, calling everything else "fake news."

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Trump in the Oval Office

But in truth nobody wanted. Because Trump burns even loyal employees in a dozen, destroys their careers and often their existences. Anyone working in the White House needs expensive lawyers, because everything that happens there is evidence - not just for Russia special investigator Robert Mueller, but for a number of other procedures.

Especially the events of the past week showed that the investigators treat Trump's closest circle - family, corporation, consultant - as a criminal organization and want to make it that way. The actors, whether conscious or unconscious accomplices, fall like dominoes, from outside to inside, until at the end only the man stands in the center.

The political wind has also turned. From January, the Democrats in the House of Representatives have the power to make life difficult for the White House. For example, by subpoena and proof requirements and by breaking Trump's agenda - or what's left of it. Even there, the chief of staff would be the pivot.

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Robert Mueller

Who wants such a hell job? The circle of interest shrank to Trump's most loyal vassals - and, yes, his relatives. Recently even Kushner was in conversation.

Only Mulvaney always wanted it. When Kelly was still fresh in office, he is said to have smuggled past his new visitor system in the White House to talk directly to Trump. "Do you want to be a bloody chief of staff?" Kelly had smiled at him.

Now it is him. From January anyway, "provisional".

Oh yes: And Mulvaney will not give up his previous post as head of household, but only let rest, said Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders later, which only caused more confusion.

"So that's clear," Trump tweeted in the evening, "MANY people wanted to become chief of staff."