The failures of his predecessors and the daunting year ahead did not deter Mick Mulvaney, who has spent several months openly lobbying for the job. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo White House ‘He would have given up a very valuable appendage to get that job’ Mick Mulvaney has angled for months to be Donald Trump’s chief of staff. Now what happens?

Chief of staff to President Donald Trump was seen by many as the job that no one wanted, a thankless post with an impossible mission. But when Trump soured on his former chief, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney didn't see a quagmire — he saw his next gig.

Mulvaney, the president’s budget director, who has also moonlighted as the head of a consumer protection agency conservatives hate, had angled for the job for months. He had a backup plan, too, pitching himself as a potential successor to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in the event Mnuchin was tapped to be Trump's chief of staff.


“He would have given up a very valuable appendage to get that job,” a Republican close to the White House said of Mulvaney's desire to be Trump's chief of staff.

Mulvaney has a résumé that would appear to make him the man for the moment. A former congressman who has steered clear of scandal and remained a favorite of the president, he was tapped for the job at a time when Trump will need a politically minded partner who understands Congress. Mulvaney has maintained relationships with influential members on Capitol Hill and may be able to help him deal with the Democratic House takeover in January.

The position has proved challenging for others, first Reince Priebus, the consummate insider and connected former party chairman, and then John Kelly, the retired Marine general who made futile attempts to impose discipline in the West Wing.

The failures of his predecessors and the daunting year ahead did not deter Mulvaney, who, according to several current and former White House officials, has spent several months openly lobbying for the job. Reports that he was uninterested in the job, these people said, were in fact an effort to increase his chances of landing it by playing hard to get.

Mulvaney didn’t initially have a natural rapport with Trump — Priebus and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the sort of Republicans against whom Trump had campaigned, and about whom he remains skeptical, pushed him for budget director. But Mulvaney developed a relationship with Trump on the golf course, often staying in Washington over weekends rather than returning to his native South Carolina, to hit the links with Trump at his Virginia country club.

Mulvaney has developed a good relationship with the Trump over time — enough so that the president named him acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when the post became vacant. White House aides say he is unlikely to attempt to reform the president’s habits of spending much of his time watching television and tweeting, or to curtail the influence of Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, on the policymaking process.

Instead, Mulvaney is expected to get Trump on the road as much as possible heading into his reelection campaign, capitalizing on the president’s love of campaign rallies while trying to sprinkle into the events as much policy talk on taxes and regulation as he can.

Despite his experience on Capitol Hill, both Republicans and Democrats questioned how effective Mulvaney would be as a liaison between the White House and his former colleagues.

Mulvaney, 51, made a name for himself on Capitol Hill in 2013 as a founder of the House Freedom Caucus. He was a perpetual thorn in the side of the Republican leadership, opposing government funding measures, debt limit increases and bipartisan budget agreements. He hounded speakers John Boehner and Ryan to shut down the government in order to secure conservative victories, even urging Republican leaders to risk a credit default in order to force Democrats to accept spending cuts.

But everything seemed to change for Mulvaney when Trump won. While he was always a reluctant Trump supporter — once calling candidate Trump “a terrible human being” — Mulvaney saw Trump's victory as an opportunity to rise in Republican ranks and advocate for his positions from a more prominent perch. With few Republicans willing to work in a Trump administration, Mulvaney made an aggressive bid for Office of Management and Budget director, striking an uncharacteristic détente with Ryan just as his Freedom Caucus friends were planning to boot him from the speaker’s chair.

Ryan recommended Mulvaney to top Trump officials for OMB, giving his candidacy added heft. Mulvaney in turn nominated Ryan to return to the speakership, a conservative endorsement that infuriated the Freedom Caucus.

Republicans sent mixed messages over the weekend about whether they think Mulvaney will be able to tame the president’s impulses, keep spending in check and improve the White House's relations with Capitol Hill. The self-described “right-wing nutjob” who helped chase Boehner out of his job has shown over the past two years that he is willing to put his personal ideology aside to secure Trump wins or help other officials advance their agendas. Indeed, some conservatives on the Hill see him as a sellout, a ladder climber who puts career advancement over principle.

Mulvaney allies argue that he has done the best he can, given the president he serves, and has advanced conservative priorities where he could.

They point in particular to his yearlong stewardship of the the CFPB, where he curtailed funding and imposed a six-month freeze on data collection, the lifeblood of nearly all the organization’s operations.

No aspect of the bureau, the brainchild of Trump nemesis Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), was too small for Mulvaney’s attention. He even required employees to call it the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and rearranged the letters in the agency’s front office, insisting he was merely following the statute as he worked to undo years of Democratic branding.

But Trump has never pretended to be an ideological conservative interested in reducing the national debt or overhauling entitlements, even though Mulvaney has tried to convince him on the merits.

“He has taken the shape of the offices he’s held, but I think you have to do that when you take an administration job, and he’s been a voice for conservative priorities internally. This could’ve been much worse for conservatives,” said Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, the leading conservative policy journal.

“What he always says is, as long as he’s comfortable that the president has been presented all the options and all the arguments, then he’s comfortable with whatever decision the president makes,” said one person who worked closely with Mulvaney at the budget office. “If a member wants to call him a hypocrite for that, fine, but he’s not the president.”

The former South Carolina congressman will take the reins at a challenging time. The coming year will bring a Democratic takeover of the House, a potentially damaging report from special counsel Robert Mueller, and a plethora of additional investigations into Trump’s businesses and practices.

Mulvaney’s first test comes next week, when Trump will have to decide whether to shutter the government to get the funding he wants for his border wall with Mexico. Hill conservatives, including Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Mulvaney’s old Hill pals, have urged Trump to embrace the fight. But while Mulvaney used to cheerlead shutdown showdowns as well, he was already urging Trump to kick the deadline into January.

Jordan praised Mulvaney’s promotion in an interview Saturday, calling the move an “ideal selection” for conservatives.

“I think he’s a great pick — and, oh, by the way, he happens to be one of the founding members of the Freedom Caucus. ... He also happens to be conservative. … I think that’s good for the country and good for the president.”

Mulvaney’s history as a member of the Trump administration is, in part, why some conservatives may be worried. On his watch, the budget deficit grew by $113 billion in fiscal year 2018 due to the Republican tax bill and increased federal spending on defense, Medicaid and Social Security, which Trump has refused to cut.

Some, however, are pleased to see Mulvaney has displayed a willingness to compromise. And he has quietly maintained tight relationships with top Republicans such as Kevin McCarthy, the incoming House minority leader; Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina; outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and Sen. Tim Scott, also of South Carolina.

Mick Mulvaney is seen in Congress in 2016. “Everyone respects him,” Rep. Richard Hudson said. “Some members didn’t appreciate the way he handled himself in the House, but I think most members liked him.” | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

“Personally, I think it's a great choice. He'll do a great job for the president," said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), a former foe. Mulvaney is "incredibly smart" and "full of great strategic advice."

Yet like other GOP lawmakers, Hudson described Mulvaney's relationships on the Hill as "a mixed bag.”

“Everyone respects him,” Hudson said. “Some members didn't appreciate the way he handled himself in the House, but I think most members liked him."

Hill Republicans hope Mulvaney will be the voice of fiscal restraint in Trump’s ear when House Democrats are dangling a massive infrastructure bill before his nose next Congress. Trump campaigned on a promise to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges. And Republicans want Mulvaney to remind the president of the more than $20 trillion national debt when Democrats offer to back an expensive infrastructure package next year.

Democrats, however, are blasting Mulvaney's promotion, pointing to it as sign that Trump won’t work across the aisle.

"President Trump’s choice of Mick Mulvaney as acting Chief of Staff is a deeply troubling indication that he is choosing confrontation over compromise,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in a Saturday statement, noting Mulvaney’s previous support for government shutdowns.

Mulvaney has been involved in the biggest Capitol Hill fights of Trump’s presidency, from the failed attempt to repeal Obamacare to the successful tax overhaul and, now, budget negotiations that may lead to a partial government shutdown next Friday.

As those events have unfolded, he has done two things that have helped him endear himself to the president. He has avoided the sorts of scandals that have felled several of his colleagues, including former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who told the president on Friday that he plans to leave the administration at the end of the year.

Secondly, if Mulvaney was considered a showboat in Congress, he has kept a lower profile since joining the Trump administration, going out of his way to avoid attention as he twisted arms of his former GOP colleagues to win their votes, people close to him say. When he made visits to the Capitol, he has opted to take back hallways instead of marching through the Rotunda in front of the cameras.

This spring, Mulvaney quietly helped persuade House Republicans to dramatically increase their budget for Trump’s border wall — coming up with the $5 billion figure that’s at the center of next week’s potential shutdown fight. The House spending panel in charge of Homeland Security was planning to include just $1.6 billion for the wall, which matched Trump’s initial request. But Mulvaney knew that Trump wanted more, and he helped drive the figure up to $5 billion.

He has never once talked about that victory publicly.

Sarah Ferris, Katy O'Donnell, John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman contributed to this report.