1. A possible additional data point: Derek Lyons is Trump's staff secretary. After working on the Jeb! campaign (!), he joined the Trump White House on day one, working for Rob Porter. Lyons succeeded Porter as staff secretary in Feb. 2018, became part of Trump's inner circle...
2. ...and was going to become domestic policy chief in May of this year, but was stopped by a revolt by America First purists. He got the consolation prize of adding Counselor to the President to his staff secretary job, joining Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway who had that title.
3. He's traveled a lot with Trump, and has been in the inner circle (for example, he was at last Friday's meeting in the Oval Office). But at the beginning of last week, he announced he was leaving before the end of the year--surprising for someone who seemed such a loyalist.
4. But as a former Kavanaugh law clerk (when Kavanaugh was on the D.C. Circuit) and lawyer at Gibson, Dunn, Lyons would be aware of what might make him unemployable in elite law firms. Being Trump White House senior staff might be one thing. As staff secretary, shepherding...
5. ...some of the planned pardons, or the planned actions of the final few weeks, to and from the Oval Office, might be another. So he won't be there for the final weeks, despite having been there from the very beginning and having risen to the top. Maybe that suggests something?
6. Or maybe he had important family matters to attend to, or some job offer that just had to begin Jan. 1 instead of Jan. 21?
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