Marc Short is taking a position at Guidepost Strategies consulting firm and will teach at the University of Virginia’s business school. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo White House Trump’s top Hill aide leaving White House amid Supreme Court battle Marc Short, Trump’s director of legislative affairs, is leaving later this month to join a D.C. consulting firm and teach at UVA.

President Donald Trump’s legislative affairs director is heading for the exits just as the White House gears up for a major Supreme Court nomination battle and approaches a daunting midterm election landscape.

Marc Short, one of the administration’s longest-serving senior aides and a frequent spokesperson for the president on television, is planning to depart by July 20, according to a person familiar with the plans.


Short, who declined to comment on the record, is taking a position at Guidepost Strategies consulting firm and will teach at the University of Virginia’s business school, where he received his MBA, and will also serve as a senior fellow at the university’s Miller Center.

Short took the job as Trump’s top liaison to Capitol Hill after serving as a senior aide to Vice President Mike Pence on the 2016 campaign. A veteran of Republican politics, Short was seen as an establishment voice within the decidedly anti-establishment administration. He was in the center of Trump’s key legislative fights, from the failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act to the rewrite of the tax code and the marathon efforts to reshape the judiciary.

Unlike past legislative affairs chiefs, Short took on a significant media profile, regularly appearing on cable news and Sunday shows to defend the White House and advocate for the president. But unlike other White House faces, from former press secretary Sean Spicer to counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, Short largely managed to avoid making the type of controversial statements or embarrassing gaffes that have become commonplace in Trump’s orbit. Like other former officials, Short may continue to make television appearances.

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At Guidepost, Short will serve as a partner alongside Phil Cox, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, and Marie Sanderson, who was policy director at RGA. The firm does consulting, lobbying and communications for an array of corporate and nonprofit clients, including the tobacco company Reynolds American, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, BMW and the American Petroleum Institute. Short himself will not be doing any lobbying.

“Marc brings that unique combination of policy depth and political expertise, which is a hallmark of our firm,” Cox said in a statement to POLITICO. “Marie and I are excited to have him join our team.”

Short is slated to begin his fellowship at UVA on Aug. 1.

“It’s an honor for me to welcome Marc Short to the Miller Center," Miller Center director William Antholis said in a statement to POLITICO. “Marc is widely respected in both parties. We had the privilege of getting to know Marc through the presidential transition and the Trump Administration’s first year, and have been impressed by his professionalism, effectiveness, and collegiality.”

Short is among a large cadre of senior White House staff members to leave before the president’s two-year mark, as Trump’s White House has seen an unprecedented level of staff turnover. Already, Trump has cycled through a chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, four communications directors, a press secretary, a chief strategist, two national security advisers and a number of midlevel aides.

