private, always respectful, and nothing left that conversation to a broader audience. what s the bigger part of the job? dealing with the president and the white house and keeping it in line or relations down pennsylvania avenue with the congress, because obviously with a divided congress, that s going to be a much bigger issue in the next two years than it was in the last two years. not to be too glib, but it s both and more. it s the demands of the job, that s why i raise this point about acting chief of staff, and the fact that apparently director mull vein fle is going to keep his position at omb, at least i heard that, there are conflicting reports, it s an all consuming, all demanding job, even described by people like secretary baker and others, it s the chief javelin catcher, you re managing the white house staff, supporting the president, it s almost 24/7, in fact it is indeed because things go around and happen around the world, you have to keep an eye on foreign policy,
of staff kind of chief protector of the president? well, the chief of staff position has been called the chief javelin catcher, the buffer of first line of defense. you ve got to focus on domestic, international and political activities. so it s very, very demanding, obviously. i think the speculation, so to speak, has started. each of those individuals have different backgrounds. i think this particular passage is important in any presidency because there are passages in a presidency, and they have certain demands, person unique periods of stress, challenges and opportunities. i think in this case the chief of staff would be well served to have political skills because you are moving toward the re-election, certainly to have some ability to navigate washington. you are going to have a lot of oversight from the
it s a good question. i ll try to be brief. you re right, it is howard baker once said to me, who was chief of staff to president reagan, a great leader and a good man, mac, you just got the worst job in washington. in many ways it s such a great privilege to serve the american people and the president. it is chief, but it s chief of staff, and it is the chief javelin catcher as andy noted. you catch those incoming spears, you have to make hard decisions, and you re going to get some criticism. by the same token you really have to remember why you re there, and that is to serve the american people and support president, and to help govern and get things done for the american people. that s what this next chief of staff needs to encourage president trump to do. good policy is good politics. so one person who is potentially considering it is congressman mark meadows who talked to reporters yesterday. he was asked if he had heard from the white house about the position. take a look
hope hicks lost people she trusted. she had, obviously, a relationship with rob porter. jared kushner s person doing communications left. she was the cheese standing alone. in an environment that s as heated as it is, when you don t have trusted allies among your peers in the white house, how can you lead a successful administration? you have to have trust. you make the right point. for sure, from what i understand, hope hicks was liked, trusted and respected by her peers. not only and certainly by the president, as well. she d be one of the persons you might think would be a four-year or eight-year, depending on how the trump presidency plays out. mu it s not going to be the case here. any white house is difficult. the chief of staff position, as you noted, is a chief javelin catcher. it is a tough position, but you have to build a team effort. you have to communicate. you have to build trust. it s essential, both upward and
general kelly, as chief of staff will say you into ed to curtail that. i think what he would be smart to do, from the communications recommendation is say, mr. president, you have a unique ability here to go around, to go through the media to get your message across when you re talking about your issues, when you want to make sure you get your story out completely unfiltered, that s the best way to do it. certain points you do want to go and pick that fight. certain things you know the media is not going to give you a fair shake. but look, general kelly is going to put in the pebest structure going to work. about the new reporting this morning of washington post saying it was president trump on air force one who dictated the message about don junior s meeting. it was a misleading message. that meeting may have ended up talking about adoption which is just a substitute for sanctions but that s not how it was sold