Mick Mulvaney has tapped roughly half a dozen former aides to accompany him to the White House, with several more potentially on the way. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images white house ‘Acting’ in name only: Mulvaney staffs up West Wing The acting chief of staff’s latest moves illustrate the extent to which he is settling into his new job despite its temporary-seeming title.

Although Mick Mulvaney is technically only an “acting” chief of staff, he’s still quickly reshaping the West Wing in his own image.

Since taking on the job’s duties in late December, Mulvaney has tapped roughly half a dozen former aides to accompany him to the White House, with several more potentially on the way. And while it’s not surprising for any new chief of staff to install people he knows and trusts in top jobs, administration officials say, Mulvaney’s latest moves illustrate the extent to which he is settling into his new job despite its temporary-seeming title.


“By keeping the ‘acting’ title, he gives himself an out in case things go south,” said a Republican close to the White House. “He can say he was only the acting chief, if his relationship with the president sours in six months. Then, he won’t be fired.”

Essentially, Mulvaney has become an “acting” chief of staff in name only.

Mulvaney recently hired Rob Blair, an associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, as the White House’s new senior adviser to the chief, according to one administration official and the Republican close to the White House. Blair will join four other budget agency veterans who moved into the West Wing in late December, including the new principal deputy-chief-of-staff Emma Doyle.

And next week, John Czwartacki, chief communications officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will join the White House as the senior adviser to chief-of-staff for strategy. Czwartacki helped Mulvaney navigate his confirmation process to become OMB director during the Trump transition and then worked for him in top jobs at the budget agency and bureau. In the process, he became one of Mulvaney’s most trusted aides alongside Doyle.

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In the coming days, Mulvaney is also slated to interview Joe Grogan, a top health care official at the budget agency, to potentially become the next head of the Domestic Policy Council, according to three sources familiar with the discussions. The current director of the council, Andrew Bremberg, is leaving the White House shortly to potentially work for the State Department while he awaits a confirmation hearing to become the next ambassador to the United Nations Mission in Geneva.

The White House press office did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Taken together, the hires signal that Mulvaney aims to put his policy stamp on the White House in whatever time he has. Mulvaney has long been known as a budget deficit hawk with strong thoughts on health care, government spending, and the federal budget. He earned a reputation while in Congress for refusing to raise the nation’s debt limit even though it meant shutting down the government.

As a former House member, Mulvaney also intends to play a larger role in outreach to congressional members, said one former administration official, a departure from his predecessor, John Kelly. Compared to Kelly, a longtime military general, Mulvaney already personally knows lawmakers and feels comfortable connecting with them directly, the former official said.

The hiring moves could make it harder for the White House to once again swap in a new chief of staff. In Trump’s two years in office, he went through two chiefs of staff before landing on this third. Reince Priebus, who first held the role, lasted only six months. His replacement, Kelly, made it to 18 months, but spent much of that time fighting off speculation about his job security and trying to manage the White House’s infighting, with constant reports that he and the president weren’t getting along.

With roughly half a dozen Mulvaney acolytes in place, ousting the acting chief of staff would raise even more questions about staff churn in an administration already known for high turnover.

The Domestic Policy Council position, in particular, is one Mulvaney cares deeply about. The council offers input on everything from immigration to health care, drug prices and welfare reform. But so far, it has played a much lesser role in internal policy debates than the powerhouse National Economic Council, chaired by Larry Kudlow.

That could change under Grogan, whose vision for the DPC includes reestablishing it as a key driver of conservative policy within the administration, after two years where it has been viewed as largely ineffective at accomplishing anything agenda-wise.

Grogan and Mulvaney worked closely together at OMB, with Grogan becoming another trusted advisers. The two share a similar ideology as conservatives and skeptics of the Republican establishment — something that can’t be said of the vast majority of the Republican health policy wonks throughout D.C.

Mulvaney first started mapping out potential scenarios for Grogan to join him in the West Wing in December.

A former top lobbyist for pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences prior to joining OMB and previously a senior policy adviser at the FDA under President George W. Bush, Grogan would likely take on an even more prominent role in the administration’s efforts to lower drug prices. Trump has expressed frustration lately at the inability to make meaningful headway on what he views as a key campaign promise.

“The job is broader than health policy, but it’s an extremely important component of it,” said one source familiar with the council hiring discussions. If Grogan takes over, “they’re going to be a stronger partner in advocating and pushing through meaningful reforms on prescription drug pricing.”

Although Grogan is seen as the frontrunner for the director position, Lance Leggitt, the current deputy director of the DPC and former chief of staff at the Health and Human Services Department, will also be interviewed. Brooke Rollins, an assistant to the president who worked closely with Jared Kushner on his prison reform legislation, is also in the running for the job.