With the Rob Porter scandal into its eighth day and showing few signs of abating, Donald Trump is seriously mulling replacing his chief of staff, John Kelly, three sources close to the White House said. In recent days, Trump has floated names like White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and longtime friend Tom Barrack, a real-estate developer. Meanwhile, factions inside and outside the White House are lobbying Trump to go with other potential choices. The battle to decide who could replace Kelly has reopened the deep fissures in Trump’s divided West Wing. One adviser to the White House referred to the current atmosphere inside the administration as a “death match.” With Kelly’s truthfulness about the former White House secretary widely questioned, few believe he can survive, but he may twist for a while.

The situation remains fluid. Last night, for instance, three Republicans told me that Trump had offered the job to Gary Cohn. But in a conversation with Sean Hannity yesterday, Trump said he had not chosen Cohn, a person close to Hannity told me. Another source said Republicans have warned Trump that choosing Cohn, a New York Democrat, would cause a backlash in the party.

One reason why Kelly still has a job is simply that it’s been so difficult for Trump to find a qualified person who actually wants to be chief of staff. Mulvaney and Barrack have indicated they aren’t interested. “Mulvaney doesn’t want it. His goal is run for governor or land a corporate gig,” speculated one White House adviser. “And his thinking is, if you’re Trump’s chief of staff, you stain yourself for the future.”

According to two sources, Trump has also discussed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The two have become close in recent months and had dinner together in Florida. “He’s a loyal guy,” Trump said of McCarthy, according to one outside adviser. In the past, McCarthy has expressed interest in being chief, even suggesting that the White House recruit a Hollywood producer to improve the production values of presidential events. “The president needs better messaging,” a Republican recalled McCarthy saying. But people who have recently spoken to McCarthy say he’s lost interest. McCarthy harbors ambitions to be the next House Speaker and has told people he’s worried that Republicans would blame him if he were serving as chief during a midterm rout by Democrats. “He knows there will be a revolution against him,” one Republican who’s spoken with McCarthy said.

Having been unsuccessful in recruiting his own candidate, Trump is soliciting ideas from his kitchen cabinet. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have aggressively pushed for Cohn, sources said. They’ve also been advocates for David Urban, the lobbyist and political strategist who helped steer Trump’s win in Pennsylvania (it’s been reported that Urban is Trump’s top pick to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia). A White House official disputed this. “Jared and Ivanka have not been involved in any conversations like this and therefore haven’t advocated for anyone,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Hannity is part of a faction pushing Wayne Berman, a senior adviser to private-equity giant Blackstone. They argue Berman has deep ties to Republicans on Capitol Hill. “You appoint Wayne and immediately relations with Mitch McConnell thaw,” one person in Berman’s camp told me. People close to Steve Bannon have been advocating for House Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows.

Trump’s public search for his next chief has left Kelly isolated and damaged by the drumbeat of leaks. Trump seems to be doing anything he can to needle Kelly. Last week, the president made sure that Kelly heard he had called his predecessor Reince Priebus for advice, a source briefed on the call told me. Perhaps it was a gambit to get Kelly to quit so he wouldn’t have to fire him. Trump hates making staffing decisions that are perceived to be driven by the media. During the campaign, for example, he supported his embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski even after Lewandowski was criminally charged with assaulting a reporter. (The battery charge was later dropped.)