Trump picks NC Rep. Mark Meadows as the next White House chief of staff, his fourth

President Donald Trump picked U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina to be his new White House chief of staff Friday.

Trump made the announcement on Twitter.

“I am pleased to announce that Congressman Mark Meadows will become White House Chief of Staff. I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one,” Trump wrote.

The timing of the announcement was surprising. The administration is still getting its bearings on a federal response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, and outgoing acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was present for a White House roundtable Wednesday with airline executives to discuss how the aviation industry is handling the crisis.

Mulvaney’s new assignment, as special envoy to Northern Ireland, also came as a shock to sources who had widely expected the outgoing chief of staff to settle into a lucrative job in the private sector — though one source did say Mulvaney has a longstanding interest in Ireland and as a South Carolina congressman once held a St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser in Washington where the Irish prime minister was a special guest.

But Mulvaney’s ouster, and Meadow’s appointment, were not completely unexpected. Meadows had been widely seen as Trump’s choice to replace Mulvaney, who had served in the post in an acting capacity since January 2019.

Mulvaney had reportedly fallen out of favor, most recently coming under fire for telling a large gathering of conservatives that the public should “turn their televisions off for 24 hours” to calm their nerves over the coronavirus, which he said was “not ebola [or] SARS.”

Meadows a staunch Trump ally

Meadows, who has represented far western North Carolina since 2013, is one of Trump’s fiercest defenders in Congress and had been considered for the chief of staff job at other points during Trump’s tenure.

Meadows announced late last year that he would not seek another term in Congress, saying he might work in the Trump administration in some capacity. That stoked stoked rumors that he was finally poised to ascend to the position when the time was right.

In a sign of Trump’s continued favoritism of Meadows, the president named the congressman to a group of House Republicans to act as a rapid response team during the Senate impeachment trial earlier this year. During those two and half weeks, Meadows boasted to reporters that no member of Congress communicated directly with Trump more than he did.

At 60 years old, Meadows will be the fourth person to hold the chief of staff title under Trump. Reince Priebus lasted 192 days. John F. Kelly held the job for about a year and a half before being replaced by Mulvaney, who grew up in Charlotte and served in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2017 before being confirmed as Trump’s first director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Mulvaney was also briefly the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

With Meadows succeeding Mulvaney in the chief of staff role, the two men will have even more in common when it comes to their shared political legacies.

Meadows and Mulvaney were both founding members of the House Freedom Caucus, a contingent of conservative congressmen who helped oust former Republican House Speaker John Boehner and pushed the Republican legislative agenda farther to the right.

Meadows is a former chairman of the group — he stepped down from his leadership post in October. Both Republicans also were seen earlier in their careers as disruptors and ideological purists who became team players with the onset of the Trump administration, which has frequently compelled them to support policies they might have scoffed at during the height of the Freedom Caucus influence.

On Friday night, Meadows in a statement praised “my friend Mick Mulvaney,” describing him as “smart, principled, and as tough a fighter you’ll find in Washington, D.C.“

“He did a great job leading the President’s team through a tremendous period of accomplishment over the last year plus,” Meadows said.

Meadows successor yet to be chosen

It’s not yet determined who will replace Meadows in Congress. In the Republican primary to replace him on March 3, Meadows’ endorsed candidate, Lynda Bennett, received 22.72% of the vote and Madison Cawthorn grabbed 20.40% in a 12-way race. The contest could be headed to a run-off.

Moe Davis won the Democratic primary.

Francesca Chambers contributed to this report.

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