President Donald Trump is watching Mick Mulvaney going down on cable news, said one political analyst on CNN Sunday. The criticism of the chief of staff came after Trump spent the weekend watching media coverage of Mulvaney's flub, the network reported.
"Trump has voraciously consumed news coverage about Mulvaney and has become more agitated," the source said according to the report. "Specifically, the President is concerned, according to the source, that Mulvaney is not transitioning enough to the role he is in now -- helping to lead the impeachment inquiry defense from the West Wing."
It's prompting some political analysts to wonder if Mulvaney's job is on the chopping block of political careers in the Trump White House.
"Well, President Trump doesn't like to admit mistakes," explained presidential historian Tim Naftali. "If he were to fire Mulvaney right now, apparently he was on his way out before the impeachment inquiry started. If he were to fire him now, this would raise all kinds of questions, more questions about the quid pro, Mulvaney's admission that there had been a quid pro quo. You don't need one for the president's actions to be impeachable, but since the president said there was no quid pro quo, that has made it harder for him to defend himself. For him to fire him right now, it's just not very good for the president. I suspect Mulvaney has managed to hold on to his job a little for now, but we'll see."
Politico reporter Anita Kumar said that Trump has an affection for his White House counsel, and while he doesn't have the experience as a chief of staff, she said that the counsel may get a new position soon.
"But there's one thing you have to remember about President Trump, which is he really does look at what is playing on television and how that appears and the publicity around it so if he feels that Mulvaney has really given him that publicity, he might let him go," she said.
If Mulvaney was let go, he would be the fourth chief of staff to leave the White House since Trump took office nearly three years ago. Former President Barack Obama has three chiefs of staff over the course of eight years.
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