"He would have given up a very valuable appendage to get this job"

Mulvaney has a curriculum vitae that seems to make him a man of choice. . A former congressman who avoided the scandal and remained one of the president's favorites, he was put to use to replace him at a time when Trump will need a political partner who understands Congress. Mulvaney has maintained relationships with influential members at Capitol Hill and could possibly help him cope with the Democratic House takeover in January.

The situation proved difficult for others, first for Reince Priebus, the perfect insider and former president of the connected party. then John Kelly, the retired navy general who tried in vain to impose discipline in the west wing.

The failures of his predecessors and the difficult year ahead have not deterred Mulvaney, who, according to several current and former White House officials, has spent several months lobbying for get the job. These people said that he was not interested in the job, was actually trying to increase his chances of getting it by playing hard.

At first, Mulvaney had no natural relationship with Trump – Priebus and Speaker of the House. Paul Ryan, the kind of Republican that Trump had been campaigning, and about which he remains skeptical, pushed him to become budget director. But he developed a relationship with Trump on the golf course, often staying in Washington on weekends rather than returning to his home country, South Carolina, to connect with Trump in his Virginia country club.

Mulvaney developed good relations with the group. Trump over time – enough for the president to appoint him acting director of the Office of Consumer Financial Protection, at the time of his vacancy. White House assistants said he was unlikely to attempt to reform the president's habits of spending much of his time watching television and tweeting, or reducing the influence of Trump's daughter and stepson, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, on the decision-making process. .

Instead, Mulvaney should put Trump on the road as much as possible before the reelection campaign, capitalizing on the president's love for the electoral rallies while trying to disseminate as much as possible the political discourse on the taxes and regulations.

Despite his experience at Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats questioned Mulvaney's effectiveness as an intermediary between the White House and his former colleagues.

Mulvaney, 51, made his name at Capitol Hill. Founder of the House Freedom Caucus in 2013. He was a purple thorn alongside Republican leadership, opposing government funding measures, debt limit increases, and bipartisan fiscal arrangements. He chased the speakers Boehner and Ryan to close the government to ensure conservative victories, urging even Republican leaders to risk a credit default in order to force Democrats to accept spending cuts.

But everything seemed to change for Mulvaney when Trump won. . While he was always a reluctant supporter of Trump – once calling the Trump candidate "a terrible human being" – Mulvaney saw his victory as an opportunity to rise to the Republican ranks and defend his positions under a perch more prominent. With few Republicans willing to work in a Trump administration, Mulvaney aggressively applied for the post of OMB director, creating an atypical relaxation with Ryan, while his friends at the Freedom Caucus were considering removing him from office.

Ryan advised Mulvaney to withdraw. Trump officials for the CAMO, giving his candidacy more weight. Mulvaney, in turn, suggested that Ryan return to the position of president, a conservative endorsement that infuriated the freedom caucus.

Republicans sent conflicting messages over the weekend, asking them if they think Mulvaney will be able to tame the president's impulses, keep spending. improve the White House's relationship with Capitol Hill. The "right nutjob" that has been described and which has driven John Boehner out of his job has shown over the past two years that he is willing to put his own ideology aside to ensure Trump's victories or help other leaders to advance their projects. Indeed, some conservatives on the hill see him as a soldier, a climber who favors the advancement of his career.

Mulvaney's allies claim that he did his best to give the president his power. serves and advances conservative priorities where it can.

They recall in particular that he headed for one year the Office of Consumer Financial Protection, where he reduced the funding and imposed a six-month freeze on data collection, vital component of the quasi -all the activities of the organization.

the office, an idea invented by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), An enemy of Trump, was too small to attract the attention of Mulvaney: he even asked the employees to calling the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and rearranged the letters in the office of the agency, insisting he was only following the law while he was striving to undo the years of democratic canvassing [19659008] But Trump never claimed to be an ideological conservative interested in reducing public debt or reviewing his rights, even though Mulvaney tried to convince him on the merits.

"It took the form of the duties he held, but I think you have to do it when you're a director, and he has Servitive priorities internally. It could have been a lot worse for the Conservatives, "said Yuval Levin, editor-in-chief of National Affairs, the leading conservative political newspaper.

"What he always says is that as long as he is satisfied that the President has been informed of all the options and arguments, he is comfortable with the decision made by the president, "said a person who worked closely with Mulvaney at the conference. budget office. "If a member wants to call him a hypocrite for that, it's fine, but he's not president."

The former South Carolina congressman will take the reins at a difficult time, when the coming year will bring about a democratic takeover. of the House, a potentially damaging report of Special Advocate Robert Mueller and a plethora of additional investigations into Trump's activities and practices.

The first test of Mulvaney will take place next week, when Trump will have to decide whether to close the government the funding he wants for his border wall with Mexico. Hill's conservatives, including Freedom caucus leaders Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan, Mulvaney's old buddies, urged Trump to accept the fight. But while Mulvaney was also in the habit of confronting the closure of cheerleaders, he was already urging Trump to postpone the deadline in January.

In an interview on Saturday, Jordan praised Mulvaney's promotion as "the right choice" for the Conservatives.

"I think it's an excellent choice – and besides, it turns out that he's part of the founding members of the freedom caucus … he also happens to be conservative … I think it's good for the country and for the president. "

The story of Mulvaney as a member of the Trump administration partly explains why some conservatives may be worried. Under his leadership, the budget deficit increased by $ 113 billion during the 2018 fiscal year due to the Republic's tax bill and the increase in federal defense spending, Medicaid, Security which Trump has refused to reduce.