Donald Trump has tapped White House budget director Mick Mulvaney to be his "acting chief of staff."
Mulvaney is a firebrand conservative and former House Freedom Caucus member who moonlighted as Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief while still serving as head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Mulvaney will reportedly resign from OMB to take on his new role at the White House.
At this point, Mulvaney certainly knows his way around the Trump administration, but perhaps one of his greatest qualifications is an old rule he followed as a congressman and conveyed earlier this year to a conference of bankers:
“If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”
That should give Mulvaney some extra insight into all the pay-to-play investigations Trump and his White House are now facing. Forget about staffing up with someone who understands the politics of national elections; Trump's need is more primal at this point: survival.