WASHINGTON — President Trump announced on Friday that he had selected Mick Mulvaney, his budget director, to serve as his acting chief of staff, temporarily halting a week of speculation about who would take over one of the most important positions in the federal government. Mr. Mulvaney, a hard-line conservative and former congressman from South Carolina, is a fiscal hawk who has produced budgets that cut federal spending only to see congressional Republicans and Democrats ignore them. He was more successful in a rare, dual-hatted role that Mr. Trump had given him, overseeing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he scaled back the mission, and in many ways neutered its influence, in keeping with the president’s view of the agency. Still, unlike the two others who have served as Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, he brings an understanding of the intersection between the White House and Congress.

Source: New York Times December 14, 2018 22:24 UTC