Meadows faces the unenviable challenge of guiding the White House through this unprecedented public health crisis and political test of Trump’s leadership. Like Trump’s previous three chiefs of staff, Meadows must advise the president, maintain his good standing with the president’s children and keep up the hands-off approach the president has come to expect from his top White House aide. And there’s no guarantee Meadows will have a different experience than Mick Mulvaney, Gen. John Kelly or Reince Priebus had, especially in a White House that has seen unprecedented turnover over the past three years.

“One of the principal reasons we are in this mess is because Trump has never had a chief of staff who will tell him hard truths, and under Mulvaney, Trump essentially defined the White House chief-of-staff job out of existence,” said Chris Whipple, author of “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.” “Now, we’re in a crisis that requires a strong federal response and we’re getting none of it. So, good luck, Meadows.”

Meadows intends to approach the chief of staff job in a hands-on manner and wants to be heavily involved in the White House’s outreach and relationships with Capitol Hill, according to interviews with a dozen current and former senior administration officials and Republicans close to the White House.

Even before he formally left Congress last Monday for his new White House role, Meadows was heavily involved in the final days of negotiations of the $2 trillion economic rescue package, and would like to work with other officials to negotiate a potential fourth package. Although he intends to let Trump act as the administration’s front man and consult a wide range of advisers, as Mulvaney did, Meadows also intends to closely advise the president on policy and political decisions, whereas Mulvaney primarily viewed his job as running the White House staff.

Meadows enters the White House with a far closer relationship with both Trump and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, than any of the first three chiefs of staff, said a former senior administration official.

No one expects Meadows to try to change the often mercurial president, aides and allies say. But Meadows also has no problem standing up to the president or nudging him in a specific direction — as he did during the White House’s 2017 failed effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, or during the historic government shutdown in the winter of 2018-19.