While President Trump spent his first week in office unwinding several Obama-era policies through executive order, one of his aides was working feverishly behind the scenes to pave the way for what cannot be done with the president’s pen.
Enter Marc Short, a Capitol Hill veteran and the new White House director of legislative affairs.
Short was appointed to the position this month after spending the summer and fall on the campaign trail with his former boss-turned-Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. The former Koch brothers operative had worked as Pence’s chief of staff during his tenure as House Republican Conference chairman and later signed onto Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign after the first three primary contests.
In his newest role, Short will be the administration’s lead legislative liaison and responsible for whipping support for the many items on Trump’s agenda that will require congressional approval.
“He was born for this role,” said a former colleague of Short’s, who asked to remain anonymous due to his current position. “He’s well-liked and well-respected by top players [in Congress] and is probably the only person who could convince a Democrat to vote for Trump-backed legislation without exerting some form of leverage.”
Even more important, Short has a deep Rolodex of relationships with individuals and organizations from which he will need to form a coalition that can translate the president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan into legislation.
“I think Marc understands the visions of those on Capitol Hill and the priorities of the administration. But he also understands priorities of large groups outside of government,” James Davis, a spokesman for the Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners that Short helped launch, told the Washington Examiner.
“So my sense is that he’ll do a good job of positioning the administration in the most favorable light to get reforms accomplished,” Davis said.
Short declined a request to be interviewed.
Davis described his friend as a small government conservative, “humble leader and devout Christian man,” who is uniquely talented at using “very personal, authentic relationships that he’s developed through the years” to get things done.
“The biggest thing is Marc knows how both the House and Senate chambers work,” Davis said, noting that Short spent time working in the office of former Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. “So he’ll be well positioned to sell policies to the Hill and be an intermediary between the White House and Congress.”
Even with his interpersonal skills, Short’s job is shaping up to be remarkably demanding.
Trump, who entered office with the lowest favorability rating of any incoming president in at least four decades (40 percent), will largely depend on Congress to secure funding and authorization for a handful of his proposals, including the border wall that he’s spent significant time promising will get built.
Bilateral trade agreements will need congressional approval, and it’s likely the president will end up having to blend his own tax plan with that which House Republicans have proposed. Much of this responsibility to coordinate with lawmakers will fall on Short, but he will also be charged with communicating the administration’s demands.
Fortunately for him, Short’s relationship with Pence will afford him a direct line to the president’s ear when congressional Republicans push back on the administration or as differences on key policy issues emerge.
“I think the House and Senate will have a lot of respect for Pence and Marc,” Doug Deason, a Dallas millionaire with ties to Short, told Politico recently. Together, Deason said Pence and Short will “be able to influence Donald Trump.”
One House GOP aide said his boss had already spoken with Short “maybe a half-dozen times” since the inauguration. “Not to put down other folks over [at the White House], but he seems to be one of the only senior officials who knows what he’s doing at this point,” the source said.
Still, Short is not building coalitions and courting members of Congress alone.
Trump himself held at least three meetings with lawmakers last week, including House and Senate leadership. And he contacted one of his greatest critics, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., by phone early Wednesday morning. Nearly every lawmaker who met with the president said afterward their conversation was pleasant.
“This administration has already done a great deal of outreach to Congress in just the last few days,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday as Trump traveled to congressional Republicans’ annual retreat in Philadelphia.
“The president is determined to enact policies that benefit all Americans and he will work with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle,” he declared.
