Day 689: No one wants to be Trump’s chief of staff

It turns out that people are realizing that working for Donald Trump ain’t all that special. You’ll be publicly humiliated, your name will be smeared and you’ll have the stink of Trump on you forever.

Trump is trying to find yet another chief of staff, after Reince Priebus and John Kelly lasted less than two years combined.

All signs pointed to Trump poaching Mike Pence’s wunderkind chief of staff Nick Ayers to the same position in the White House. While Trump and Ayers discussed it, Ayers ultimately decided to the exact opposite of taking the job: he’s leaving Washington entirely.

Ayers turned Trump down, which was a stunner in the White House with some already going on the record about his qualifications.

But two people close to Mr. Trump said that a news release announcing Mr. Ayers’s appointment had been drafted, and that the president had wanted to announce it as soon as possible.

Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to the president, said Mr. Ayers’s “unique qualification was that he had been doing the same job for the vice president.” But “those of us with young kids very well understand the personal decision he made,” she said.

Trump, of course, tried to spin the news as ‘Ayers was one of many people being considered’ while quickly restarting the search behind the scenes.

However, some of the secondary of options have apparently no interest either, such as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who reportedly told friends he doesn’t want the gig.

It seems that many see what has happened to previous people in the position or see the storm on the horizon that is the Robert Mueller investigation. Either way, no one wants to get any closer to Trump.

689 days in, 773 to go

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