President Donald Trump is scrambling to find a new chief of staff after his first choice to replace John Kelly rejected the role at the last minute and several other potential successors signalled they did not want the job.

Leading contender Nick Ayers, said to have been in talks over taking the position for several months, ruled himself out of the running amid mounting chaos at the White House.

Mr Trump is reported to have been “super pissed” by the development, which leaves him racing to fill a job described as “one of the toughest in DC” at a time when Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is getting ever nearer to the Oval Office.

Five people linked to the president have pleaded guilty to federal charges as investigators probe whether Mr Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Kremlin in the 2016 election campaign.

Prosecutors in New York have also for the first time linked the president to a federal crime, accusing him of orchestrating hush-money payments by his long-time lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to a porn star and a former Playboy model.