Trump Wonders If Mnuchin, Conway Are Stupid Enough To Replace Mick Mulvaney After He’s Tweet-Fired

“You’ve got a working brain and a pulse, want to be my chief of staff?”

That’s basically what Donald Trump has been saying, out loud, over the past several weeks amid the controversy swirling around what lawmakers (and voters) now know was an extensive pressure campaign aimed at compelling the fledging government of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the US president’s political rivals.

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has become a central figure in lawmakers’ probe of the Ukraine affair and that scrutiny is set to intensify following Mulvaney’s bungled attempt to field questions about the impeachment inquiry during a press conference late last week.

Read more: ‘That’s Why We Held Up The Money’

“[President Trump] mentioned to me in the past… the corruption related to the DNC server — absolutely, no question about that”, Mick said. “That’s it, that’s why we held up the money”.

Hours later, he attempted to walk that back, but it was far too late.

Mulvaney most assuredly “knows too much”, so to speak. In addition to being Trump’s point man when it came to placing Ukraine policy in the hands of Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker and Rick Perry (the “three amigos”), Mulvaney also personally conveyed Trump’s orders to delay congressionally-approved aid to the country.

Although his ouster isn’t seen as imminent, people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg said that a few weeks back, Trump looked at Steve Mnuchin “in front of a roomful of staff” and said something to the effect of “You have such great ideas, why don’t you be my chief?”

Separate sources said the president has also inquired of his advisers whether Kellyanne Conway would be good for the position, which Mulvaney has never filled in anything other than an “acting” capacity since replacing John Kelly, who finally threw in the towel late last year.

Apparently, Mnuchin isn’t under “formal consideration” (whatever that means in this administration) if for no other reason than Trump understands pulling him out of his current position has the potential to unnerve markets.

As for Conway, some say Jared Kushner would object to her elevation, which is a relief until you remind yourself that Kushner shouldn’t be making staff decisions for the president.

Trump is almost surely irritated with Mulvaney, but firing him could risk creating a dangerous loose end, something the White House has too many of as it stands.

As Bloomberg dryly notes, “Mulvaney is the president’s third chief of staff, appointed by tweet in December to replace John Kelly, who himself was appointed by tweet to replace Reince Priebus”.

“We have a lot of love in the administration”, Trump famously said 13 months ago, following the release of an anonymous Op-Ed penned by an administration official. “The White House is truly, as you would say, a well-oiled machine”.