If there's one thing that really sums up just how profoundly messed up the Trump White House is, top to bottom, it's this: The one person capable of making Trump and Co. happy in the role of chief of staff is former Freedom Caucus maniac Mick Mulvaney. The once—and current—Office of Management and Budget Director, who also moonlighted as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for over a year, has been filling in as top deputy for Trump since John Kelly left last year, reportedly at the time no longer even trying to talk with Trump. But Mulvaney is doing so great at the job, they're making it permanent.
That's right: The Freedom Caucus lives on, and this time it's taking over the White House. Apparently, Mulvaney is working out so well because he just lets Trump do whatever the hell he wants, and is also nice to first daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, the guy running around on the world stage with a security clearance he should not have. Mulvaney lets them do whatever they want as well, so they don't go running to Daddy complaining about the nanny being mean. This all is absolutely real, sources tell Politico. He's succeeding because he lets them be awful. "He has stayed out of a lot of people's way," a senior administration official told reporter Nancy Cook. "No one is saying he is killing it but staying out of people's way has helped."
Here's something to help you sleep at night: "Mulvaney has also quietly installed roughly eight loyal aides within the West Wing." It's a Freedom Caucus coup, brought about by the fact that literally no one else Trump tried to talk into taking the chief job was willing to do it. He got bored with the hunt for Kelly's replacement after multiple, public rejections by people like Rep. Mark Meadows, the North Carolina maniac; Nick Ayers; and Chris Christie, so it looks like Mulvaney is ending up on top. Trump has apparently not made it official yet, and could change his mind, but he's done nothing else in the interest of the country, so it doesn't seem likely he'll want to chance getting someone else who might try to rein in his impulses again.
Back to that coup: He's installed his people in the "chief of staff’s office, communications shop and Domestic Policy Council, which crafts policy on issues like health care, drug prices, welfare, education and transportation." That's comforting, huh? While Trump's out there being as Trumpy as he wants to be, Mulvaney and team will be behind the scenes trying to dismantle our society. Good times.