Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers listens during a working lunch with U.S. President Donald Trump, the Vice President and governors in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
December 9, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nick Ayers will not become U.S. President Donald Trump’s next chief of staff, and the president is considering two other officials instead, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
The president is considering current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Republican Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, one source said.
Ayers, currently Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, tweeted that he would be leaving the White House shortly. Sources said he would be joining a political action committee.
“I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause,” he wrote on Twitter, in a reference to Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Trump will decide on his new chief of staff by the end of the year, the sources said. The president said on Saturday that current White House Chief of Staff John Kelly would leave the post by year’s end.
One source said Trump had sought a two-year commitment from Ayers and that Ayers was unable to agree to that.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)
