Last December, after struggling to find someone willing to take on a job that ranks somewhere between coal miner and pet-food taster, Donald Trump gave up and awarded the thankless role of White House chief of staff to Mick Mulvaney. Though the gig was supposed to be on an “acting” basis, one might have thought Mulvaney would have lasted longer than six weeks before plotting ways to flee the scene.

But, surprise! Per Politico:

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, is interested in succeeding Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary, according to several people with knowledge of his plans. Our colleagues Nancy Cook and Andrew Restuccia scooped in November that Mulvaney was angling for the job, but now that he’s in the White House’s top job, the positioning has started anew, and seems to have picked up in recent weeks, according to multiple people in the administration.

Constantly looking for a new government agency to destroy is kind of Mulvaney’s thing—in addition to the chief-of-staff gig, the former South Carolina representative currently serves as the White House O.M.B. director, where he’s best known for a $2 trillion math error. From November 2017 to December 2018, he also served as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he worked diligently to destroy the place from the inside. In addition, until as recently as last year, Mulvaney was said to be “exploring the possibility of becoming president of the University of South Carolina”—a report that prompted Elizabeth Warren to call for an ethics probe, and that Mulvaney’s office subsequently denied, saying he had discussed the job with a friend, but that the conversation occurred “before he was named Acting Chief of Staff and it should go without saying that he is no longer interested in seeking employment at the University or anywhere else.” In this case, however, there may be a little more urgency to his job search, given that, according to my colleague Gabriel Sherman, the president blames Mulvaney for the terrible press inspired by the (entirely Trump-induced) 35-day government shutdown.

As for Ross, rumors of his demise have long circulated, likely on account of his penchant for falling asleep during White House meetings and the president questioning his “intelligence and competence.” He’s hung on so far, which may have something to do with the fact that he’s a paying member of Mar-a-Lago, a status that obviously goes a long way with this administration. On the other hand, it’s unclear how secure Ross’s standing is after his decision to go on CNBC and tell the 800,000 unpaid federal workers, on day 34 of the shutdown, to “take out a loan” and quit their bitching. (Given comments from other senior staff that furloughed workers should relax and view the time as a free vacation, he’s probably fine.)