Donald Trump appoints Mick Mulvaney as acting chief of staff

US President Donald Trump on Friday announced budget director Mick Mulvaney will be appointed his acting chief of staff.

In a Twitter post Trump said that Mulvaney, who heads the Office of Management and Budget, "has done an outstanding job" in his administration and would take on the role next year.

"I look forward to working with him (Mulvaney) in this new capacity," Trump wrote.

Mulvaney replied to Trump's tweet, saying it was a "tremendous honor" to have been chosen for the role. "I look forward to working with the president and the entire team," he wrote.

Read more: Who is John Kelly, Donald Trump's White House chief of staff?

Mulvaney would take over from retired Marine General John Kelly, who will step down from the top post in early January. Trump praised Kelly's service and called him a "great patriot" on Twitter.

Top candidates withdrew

The president's first choice had been Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, who bowed out after being unable to come to an agreement on how long he would serve in the post.

Trump's decision on Friday came just hours after former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who had been considered a top candidate, also withdrew his name.

Christie's announcement leaves the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as two top possibilities to replace Kelly in the long term.

A second Mulvaney quick-fix

Before joining the Trump administration, Mulvaney was an outspoken member of the House Freedom Caucus, a powerful bloc of conservative Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives.

Last November, Trump named Mulvaney the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that had been closely associated with the Obama administration.

The appointment was fought in court, but Mulvaney won and ran the agency until earlier this month, when Trump's official pick was confirmed by the US Senate.

law/bw (AP, dpa, Reuters)