January 17, 2019
#LOSER:
In a West Wing in Transition, Trump Tries to Stand Firm on the Shutdown (Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni, Jan. 16, 2019, NY Times)
"We are getting crushed!" Mr. Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, after watching some recent coverage of the shutdown, according to one person familiar with the conversation. "Why can't we get a deal?" [...]Behind the scenes, meanwhile, the White House is in a moment of transition as West Wing staff members become acclimated to the leadership style of a new chief of staff. Mr. Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina, has told aides he has no plans to duplicate the type of chain-of-command structure preferred by John F. Kelly, the retired Marine general he replaced. Nor did he want to limit anyone's access to Mr. Trump."You're all adults," Mr. Mulvaney told the White House staff members in attendance, according to an administration official in the room.
Mr. Mulvaney thereby staked out a strong claim for funniest line of a laughingstock presidency.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 17, 2019 1:00 PM