Swordsmyth
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Mick Mulvaney building ‘empire for the right wing’ in White House
Mick Mulvaney's battles with Alexander Acosta began almost immediately.
Weeks after he was named acting White House chief of staff, Mr Mulvaney summoned the labour secretary for a tense January encounter that became known inside the West Wing as "the woodshed meeting."
Mr Mulvaney told Mr Acosta in blunt terms that the White House believed he was dragging his feet on regulation rollbacks desired by business interests and that he was on thin ice as a result, according to advisers and a person close to the White House.
Soon afterward, Mr Acosta proposed a spate of business-friendly rules on overtime pay and other policies.
But it was not enough to save Mr Acosta from Mr Mulvaney's ire - and it helps explain why the former federal prosecutor had such tepid administration support last week as he resigned over his handling of a high-profile sex-crimes case more than a decade ago.
The episode illustrates the growing influence wielded by Mr Mulvaney, a former tea party lawmaker who has built what one senior administration official called "his own fiefdom" focused on pushing conservative policies - while mostly steering clear of the Trump-related pitfalls that tripped up his predecessors by employing a "Let Trump be Trump" ethos.
This account of Mr Mulvaney's rising power is based on interviews with 32 White House aides, current and former administration officials, lawmakers and legislative staffers, some of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly.
Mr Mulvaney and the White House declined to make him available for an interview.
Mr Mulvaney - who is technically on leave from his first administration job as budget director - spends considerably less time with Donald Trump than the two previous chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly. And the president has sometimes kept him out of the loop when making contentious foreign policy decisions, advisers say. At a recent donor retreat in Chicago, Mr Mulvaney told attendees that he does not seek to control the president's tweeting, time or family, one attendee said.
Instead, Mr Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating a new White House power centre revolving around the long-dormant Domestic Policy Council and encompassing broad swaths of the administration. One White House official described Mr Mulvaney as "building an empire for the right wing."
He has helped install more than a dozen ideologically aligned advisers in the West Wing since his December hiring. Cabinet members are pressed weekly on what regulations they can strip from the books and have been told their performance will be judged on how many they remove. Policy and spending decisions are now made by the White House and dictated to Cabinet agencies, instead of vice versa. When Mr Mulvaney cannot be in the Oval Office for a policy meeting, one of his allies is usually there.
"You have a chief of staff with a professional commitment to ensuring that a real policy agenda gets enacted," said Charmaine Yoest, who served in senior roles in the Trump White House and at Health and Human Services before moving to the Heritage Foundation. "You've got to dig in, chart a path forward and stay committed to it, and we welcome his serious approach to policymaking."
Mr Mulvaney's biggest successes so far have come in deregulation efforts, where he prods agencies to move faster in case Mr Trump loses or Democrats win the Senate in 2020, advisers say.
Aside from the domestic policy shop, Mr Mulvaney has also tapped allies to fill roles in the White House's legislative affairs operation, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and his old haunts at the OMB. He regularly suggests ideas to all of them.
"What I am seeing is that Mulvaney cares about the domestic agencies much more than the prior chiefs of staff did," said Tammy McCutchen, a former Labour Department official in the George W Bush administration who is now a partner at the Littler Mendelson law firm. "They're holding the agencies accountable to move forward on regulations."
In the past two months, he has forced out the chiefs of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, White House aides said, and the Labour Department amid policy disputes with them and their respective secretaries.
Mr Mulvaney and Mr Grogan have repeatedly clashed with HHS secretary Alex Azar, overruling him, for example, on ending the funding of medical research by government scientists using foetal tissue.
Emma Doyle, Mr Mulvaney's deputy, has sought to control all presidential events and the president's schedule - asking officials to submit formal proposals for why they should be in the room and controlling who is usually in the room. She also leads a weekly meeting on presidential events. Ms Doyle was recently in charge of a review of the president's immigration agencies and led a months-long hunt earlier this year for the person responsible for leaks of the president's internal schedules.
"Everything is controlled. The only people not under his thumb are Kudlow and Bolton," said one senior administration official, referring to economic adviser Larry Kudlow and national security adviser John Bolton.
Where former chiefs of staff Reince Priebus and John Kelly were more deferential to Cabinet members, Mr Mulvaney has told them they are being judged on how much they can deregulate, with the policy council monitoring them daily. He is pushing for faster rollbacks of rules enacted by former president Barack Obama before Mr Trump's first term ends, such as restricting what falls under the Clean Water Act and halting implementation of higher fuel-economy standards, according to administration officials.
Although pleasing to businesses, Mr Mulvaney's efforts are also heartening to social conservatives, who say they are finding a more open reception than before.
For instance, a new rule released in May gives healthcare providers, insurers and employers greater latitude to refuse coverage for medical services they say violate their religious or moral beliefs. That policy is facing legal challenges. The same month, the White House proposed a rollback of Obama-era rules that banned discrimination against transgender medical patients. Another rule, also being challenged in the courts, bans taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals.
"We're just taking the president's challenge seriously to look everywhere and come up with options for deregulation that spurs economic growth," Mr Vought said in an interview. "You have an administration that's in sync and everyone is talking to each other."
Mr Mulvaney - who has acknowledged to other advisers that he knows little about foreign policy - has installed a deputy for national security, Rob Blair, who regularly battles with Mr Bolton and his allies. Mr Mulvaney and Mr Bolton are barely on speaking terms, and Mr Blair has regularly challenged Mr Bolton's subordinates, according to people familiar with the relationship.
Mr Mulvaney has also been a key backer internally of Halil Suleyman Ozerden, whom Mr Trump nominated for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last month despite misgivings from conservatives, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr Ozerden and Mr Mulvaney have known each other for years, and Mr Mulvaney was a groomsman in Mr Ozerden's wedding. Mr Mulvaney vouched for him in a private conversation with senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, who chairs the committee that will take up Mr Ozerden's nomination.
More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-acting-chief-staff-mick-123001227.html
Mick Mulvaney's battles with Alexander Acosta began almost immediately.
Weeks after he was named acting White House chief of staff, Mr Mulvaney summoned the labour secretary for a tense January encounter that became known inside the West Wing as "the woodshed meeting."
Mr Mulvaney told Mr Acosta in blunt terms that the White House believed he was dragging his feet on regulation rollbacks desired by business interests and that he was on thin ice as a result, according to advisers and a person close to the White House.
Soon afterward, Mr Acosta proposed a spate of business-friendly rules on overtime pay and other policies.
But it was not enough to save Mr Acosta from Mr Mulvaney's ire - and it helps explain why the former federal prosecutor had such tepid administration support last week as he resigned over his handling of a high-profile sex-crimes case more than a decade ago.
The episode illustrates the growing influence wielded by Mr Mulvaney, a former tea party lawmaker who has built what one senior administration official called "his own fiefdom" focused on pushing conservative policies - while mostly steering clear of the Trump-related pitfalls that tripped up his predecessors by employing a "Let Trump be Trump" ethos.
This account of Mr Mulvaney's rising power is based on interviews with 32 White House aides, current and former administration officials, lawmakers and legislative staffers, some of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly.
Mr Mulvaney and the White House declined to make him available for an interview.
Mr Mulvaney - who is technically on leave from his first administration job as budget director - spends considerably less time with Donald Trump than the two previous chiefs of staff, Reince Priebus and John Kelly. And the president has sometimes kept him out of the loop when making contentious foreign policy decisions, advisers say. At a recent donor retreat in Chicago, Mr Mulvaney told attendees that he does not seek to control the president's tweeting, time or family, one attendee said.
Instead, Mr Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating a new White House power centre revolving around the long-dormant Domestic Policy Council and encompassing broad swaths of the administration. One White House official described Mr Mulvaney as "building an empire for the right wing."
He has helped install more than a dozen ideologically aligned advisers in the West Wing since his December hiring. Cabinet members are pressed weekly on what regulations they can strip from the books and have been told their performance will be judged on how many they remove. Policy and spending decisions are now made by the White House and dictated to Cabinet agencies, instead of vice versa. When Mr Mulvaney cannot be in the Oval Office for a policy meeting, one of his allies is usually there.
"You have a chief of staff with a professional commitment to ensuring that a real policy agenda gets enacted," said Charmaine Yoest, who served in senior roles in the Trump White House and at Health and Human Services before moving to the Heritage Foundation. "You've got to dig in, chart a path forward and stay committed to it, and we welcome his serious approach to policymaking."
Mr Mulvaney's biggest successes so far have come in deregulation efforts, where he prods agencies to move faster in case Mr Trump loses or Democrats win the Senate in 2020, advisers say.
Aside from the domestic policy shop, Mr Mulvaney has also tapped allies to fill roles in the White House's legislative affairs operation, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and his old haunts at the OMB. He regularly suggests ideas to all of them.
"What I am seeing is that Mulvaney cares about the domestic agencies much more than the prior chiefs of staff did," said Tammy McCutchen, a former Labour Department official in the George W Bush administration who is now a partner at the Littler Mendelson law firm. "They're holding the agencies accountable to move forward on regulations."
In the past two months, he has forced out the chiefs of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, White House aides said, and the Labour Department amid policy disputes with them and their respective secretaries.
Mr Mulvaney and Mr Grogan have repeatedly clashed with HHS secretary Alex Azar, overruling him, for example, on ending the funding of medical research by government scientists using foetal tissue.
Emma Doyle, Mr Mulvaney's deputy, has sought to control all presidential events and the president's schedule - asking officials to submit formal proposals for why they should be in the room and controlling who is usually in the room. She also leads a weekly meeting on presidential events. Ms Doyle was recently in charge of a review of the president's immigration agencies and led a months-long hunt earlier this year for the person responsible for leaks of the president's internal schedules.
"Everything is controlled. The only people not under his thumb are Kudlow and Bolton," said one senior administration official, referring to economic adviser Larry Kudlow and national security adviser John Bolton.
Where former chiefs of staff Reince Priebus and John Kelly were more deferential to Cabinet members, Mr Mulvaney has told them they are being judged on how much they can deregulate, with the policy council monitoring them daily. He is pushing for faster rollbacks of rules enacted by former president Barack Obama before Mr Trump's first term ends, such as restricting what falls under the Clean Water Act and halting implementation of higher fuel-economy standards, according to administration officials.
Although pleasing to businesses, Mr Mulvaney's efforts are also heartening to social conservatives, who say they are finding a more open reception than before.
For instance, a new rule released in May gives healthcare providers, insurers and employers greater latitude to refuse coverage for medical services they say violate their religious or moral beliefs. That policy is facing legal challenges. The same month, the White House proposed a rollback of Obama-era rules that banned discrimination against transgender medical patients. Another rule, also being challenged in the courts, bans taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals.
"We're just taking the president's challenge seriously to look everywhere and come up with options for deregulation that spurs economic growth," Mr Vought said in an interview. "You have an administration that's in sync and everyone is talking to each other."
Mr Mulvaney - who has acknowledged to other advisers that he knows little about foreign policy - has installed a deputy for national security, Rob Blair, who regularly battles with Mr Bolton and his allies. Mr Mulvaney and Mr Bolton are barely on speaking terms, and Mr Blair has regularly challenged Mr Bolton's subordinates, according to people familiar with the relationship.
Mr Mulvaney has also been a key backer internally of Halil Suleyman Ozerden, whom Mr Trump nominated for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last month despite misgivings from conservatives, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr Ozerden and Mr Mulvaney have known each other for years, and Mr Mulvaney was a groomsman in Mr Ozerden's wedding. Mr Mulvaney vouched for him in a private conversation with senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, who chairs the committee that will take up Mr Ozerden's nomination.
More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-acting-chief-staff-mick-123001227.html
