Thread by @pleasesaveour

‼️Mick Mulvaney, the man behind the curtain‼️

The Acosta episode illustrates the growing influence wielded by Mulvaney, a former tea party lawmaker who has built what one senior administration official called “his own fiefdom”
washingtonpost.com/politics/his-o…

centered 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.

Mulvaney — who is technically on leave from his first admin job as budget director — spends less

time with Trump than his two previous chiefs of staff

Mulvaney has focused much of his energy on creating new WH power center revolving around the Domestic Policy Council. One WH official described Mulvaney as “building an empire for the right wing.”

obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration…

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.

Mulvaney also faces significant obstacles on Capitol Hill, where he made enemies on both sides of the aisle during his three terms as a bomb-throwing House

conservative. Dems openly disdain him as a saboteur, while many key GOP distrust his willingness to compromise, particularly on fiscal policy. Some GOP senators freely signal they would rather deal with any other admin official than him.

Mulvaney spends more time in his office

than his predecessors, feeling no need to sit in on all of Trump’s meetings. (He has his own agenda)

Mulvaney’s biggest successes so far have come in deregulation efforts, where he prods agencies to move faster in case Trump loses or Democrats win the Senate in 2020

Puppet master

Aside from the domestic policy shop, 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.

Emma Doyle, Mulvaney’s deputy, has sought to control all pres events and the Trump's sched — 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.

Doyle was recently in charge of a review of the president’s immigration agencies and led a months-long hunt earlier this year for who was leaking the president’s internal schedules.

“Everything is controlled. The only people not under his thumb are Kudlow and Bolton,”

Here's the scary part

Where Priebus and Kelly were more deferential to Cabinet members, Mulvaney has told them they are being judged on how much they can deregulate, with the policy council monitoring them daily.

Not forming new groups or policies, deregulating. Period.

Mulvaney has acknowledged to others he knows little about foreign policy has installed a deputy for national security Rob Blair, who regularly battles with Bolton and his allies. Mulvaney and Bolton are barely on speaking terms, and Blair has regularly challenged Bolton’s subs

Mulvaney's sway in Congress is clearly limited, however. GOP aides routinely trash him in private and say he has done little to improve his image from his House days, when he was a leading antagonist in forcing gov shutdowns and other hardball tactics.