North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows is set to resign from Congress on Monday to become White House chief of staff.
President Trump announced Meadows as his fourth chief of staff nearly one month ago in a surprise tweet dismissing acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
But Meadows, 60, eased into the role during what officials said was an orderly handover by Mulvaney, who will become envoy to Northern Ireland.
A source explained the protracted handoff by saying that Meadows wanted to stay involved as a member of Congress during negotiation of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.
Meadows made his first visit to Capitol Hill as incoming chief of staff last week, taking part in the final stretch of negotiations over the stimulus bill.
The leadership transition was throttled by Meadows self-quarantining immediately after his selection as a result of coming into contact with a COVID-19-infected guest at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Mulvaney also had to self-quarantine. He spent the past two weeks in South Carolina after his niece came into contact with coronavirus-infected Brazilians at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Meadows will be joined in the West Wing by his congressional chief of staff and communications director Ben Williamson, who will serve as a senior adviser.
The White House did not immediately comment on the transition.
Meadows openly vied for the job in December 2018, but Trump instead picked Mulvaney, his former White House budget director. Meadows announced in December he would leave Congress, but left the door open to working in the White House.
“Meadows is a calming influence. He’s a little closer to Trump’s age,” a supportive source said when Trump selected Meadows this month.
Both Meadows and Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman, were members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.