Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is emerging as the bookmakers’ favorite to be the next White House chief of staff if President Trump ditches embattled acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
At 3-2, he edges out White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who is at 7-2, and deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell, who has odds of 5-2, according to betting aggregator US-Bookies.com.
“While Trump has been privately testing the idea of replacing yet another chief of staff, the betting odds suggest that Mulvaney keeping his job is still a likely scenario,” said Alex Donohue, US-Bookies political betting analyst. “The current chief of staff has 5-2 odds to keep his job through the end of 2019.”
Speculation has swirled that Mulvaney’s days are numbered after a string of verbal slipups.
At a press briefing to defend Trump’s decision to host next year’s G-7 summit at one of his own resorts, the acting chief of staff fielded questions on impeachment and managed to confirm that the president’s order to withhold aid money from Ukraine was in part contingent on Ukraine investigating his political rivals.
Days later, he appeared on TV to limit the damage but managed to undermine the administration’s defense of Trump’s G-7 decision.
“At the end of the day, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business,” Mulvaney said.
At the same time, reports have surfaced that Trump has been quizzing aides on whether Mulvaney is doing a good job.
According to Bloomberg, Trump has floated the idea of Conway taking over the role and about a month ago told Mnuchin, “You have such great ideas. Why don’t you be my chief?”
The US-Bookies analysis is based on gambling in the United Kingdom and around the world — in jurisdictions where betting on politics is legal.
“A common name thrown around when it comes to potential openings at the White House, Chris Christie is 10-1 to be Trump’s next chief of staff,” added Donohue. “While his odds don’t look great, they’re better than Wayne Berman’s 12-1 odds.”
Berman, senior managing director at the Blackstone Group, is a veteran Washington lobbyist who worked at the Commerce Department under President George H.W. Bush and was discussed as a possible chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence last year.
