“I'm just a couple of haircuts away from equaling the number of staff departures by your WH colleagues,” Rep. Trey Gowdy said to Mick Mulvaney. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images Gowdy and Mulvaney tweak each other on Twitter

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) appeared to get into a pointed but apparently good-natured Twitter tiff Tuesday with Trump administration budget chief Mick Mulvaney, a fellow South Carolinian and former House member.

Mulvaney tweeted a barb about Gowdy’s famously shape-shifting mop of hair and joked that he’d buy Gowdy a comb and razor for his 60th birthday. Gowdy just turned 53.


That’s when Gowdy fired back: “I'm just a couple of haircuts away from equaling the number of staff departures by your WH colleagues,” the congressman tweeted. “I get it. You are hard to work with.”

The sharp retort referred to the raft of senior departures from the West Wing in recent weeks, including Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, senior aides to President Donald Trump.

The joke-feud seemed to escalate throughout the day, after Mulvaney’s initial tweet about Gowdy’s hair was picked up by the Washington Examiner.

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“Mick won't even fund Meals on Wheels," Gowdy told the newspaper. "He surely isn't going to pay for someone else's haircut."

Mulvaney’s initial offending tweet included four pictures of Gowdy with alternating hairstyles.

“What do you get for someone on his 60th birthday? A razor and a comb,” Mulvaney tweeted. “Happy birthday, @TGowdySC.”

