Mike Allen: “White House insiders expect Mulvaney to get the permanent gig. But Trump keeps control and doesn’t fully empower his guy, reminding Mulvaney who the real chief of staff is: No funny business like General John Kelly tried to pull, restricting enablers’ access to POTUS.”

“This is exactly why some other candidates didn’t take the job or didn’t get the job: They would have insisted on changes Trump doesn’t want to make.”

Asked why Mulvaney was named “acting,” the official said: “Because that’s what the president wants.”

“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team continues to be interested in interviewing the President Trump,” CNN reports.

“Mueller’s interest in talking with the President is believed to include asking questions about the Trump’s state of mind in regard to actions under scrutiny in the obstruction of justice probe.”

“Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I’m doing so despite the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being.”

— Interim White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, quoted The State in November 2016.

President Trump’s search for a new White House chief of staff is centering around former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, senior adviser Jared Kushner and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Reuters reports.

While other candidates remain, the three men appear to be the top contenders with Christie leading the pack.

Washington Post: “In the cases of Cohen, former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Mueller has proceeded to the sentencing of each without first making him testify at trial against others. That’s at odds with the common practice of prosecutors — which is to hold the stick of a tougher prison sentence over defendants until they have completed all of their cooperation, particularly any public testimony.”

“While the recent legal action has led to speculation that prosecutors are narrowing in on the president in anticipation of more criminal charges, Mueller’s sentencing timeline suggests a different outcome to some legal experts — that the accounts of those cooperating witnesses will appear in a written report, not in court.”

Glenn Kessler: “There has been no serial exaggerator in recent American politics like the president. He not only consistently makes false claims but also repeats them, even though they have been proved wrong. The explosion of false and misleading statements from him in 2018 is well documented in our database: In the seven weeks leading up the midterm elections, the president made 1,419 false or misleading claims — an average of 30 a day.”

“Trump says many things that are factually incorrect, but he sometimes says things that are mind-blowingly false. Despite having access to more information than anyone on Earth, he persists in making claims with literally no foundation.”