Rahm Emanuel: 'Godspeed' to Trump's next chief of staff

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO 12/11/2018 07:52 AM EST

Chicago mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has one wish for the person President Donald Trump selects to be his next chief of staff: “Godspeed.”

Emanuel, who sandwiched five years in the House between stints in the White House as a senior adviser in the Clinton administration and Obama's first chief of staff, wrote in The Atlantic that successful White House chiefs of staff are paired closely to the challenges the administration they serve are facing. Emanuel warned that Trump appears poised to misfire in making his pick to replace the outgoing chief of staff, John Kelly.

"There’s nothing magical about the chief of staff’s corner office in the West Wing," Emanuel wrote. "It appears that Trump is choosing a chief of staff based primarily on whether he’s equipped to help with his reelection effort. But let’s be honest — that shouldn’t be the president’s most immediate concern."

Trump announced over the weekend Kelly, his embattled chief of staff whose imminent departure had been reported last week, would leave the administration at the end of the year. Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, was reportedly Trump’s top pick to replace Kelly but turned the position down, setting off a scramble inside the White House to fill the soon-to-be-vacant job.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/11/rahm-emanuel-trump-white-house-chief-of-staff-1055432