WASHINGTON–There is simply no way to prepare for what it’s like to walk into the Oval Office for the first time as the president’s chief of staff and feel that weight on your shoulders, according to two men who have held the title.
In a closing session at CUNA’s GAC, Reince Priebus, who served as President Trump’s first chief of staff, and Thomas “Mack” McLarty, who served three U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter, shared their insights on everything from how they got the jobs to their best and worst days to what is going on right now in the White House related to the situation in Ukraine to the future of democracy in America.
They offered their comments in response to questions from CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle, who served in the George W. Bush administration s director of the Office of Management & Budget, and who acted as moderator.
Here is what each had to say about a job some have dubbed the “co-president”:
Nussle: How did you become chief of staff?
Priebus At some point I decided I’m not the chief of staff, I’m the chief of stuff. I grew up loving politics. My story is really a story of any kid in America who loves something and pursues something. I did it all the time. I was college Republican president. I was part of the student bar association. I did it all the time. Two of my good friends (in Wisconsin), Scott Walker and Paul Ryan, decided they wanted to be candidates. I had stayed in the party and became chairman of the Wisconsin state party and then general counsel of the Republican National Committee.
I got involved. It wasn’t because I was anything special, but I worked like a dog. Then I became chairman of the RNC. When I walked in we were $26 million in debt and our two credit cards were suspended. Slowly but surely, things started turning around. Donald Trump won. People were shocked. He looked at me and said how would you like to be chief of staff? I ran the transition. We started from nothing. There is no manual. And then on the first day you are running the federal government.
McLarty: I had not expected to be chief of staff. I am a third generation businessman (in the oil and gas business). I had never worked directly with government, but had worked closely with Gov. Bill Clinton on a centrist Democratic (movement). I am a between-the-40s type guy, a strong believer in bipartisanship. I had also worked with George W. Bush.
I supported my life-long friend, Gov. Clinton, from our home state (Arkansas). I thought the country wanted a change. On the day after the election, to my total surprise, President-Elect Clinton asked me to come by the governor’s mansion where he asked me to be chief of staff. After a discussion with my wife and two sons, one a student at Georgetown here and those were major considerations, I did inform the president-elect I would be honored to serve.
It is a major task to be chief of staff to any president, but especially if you are the chief of staff at the beginning of a new administration and especially after 12 years of another party. That is a major shift. Just getting a government in place…is a major undertaking.
Priebus: When you are the first chief of staff you have to imagine it’s like there are five or six of these tables (in place in the GAC audience) that represents the only group of people who will get an office in of the West Wing. All the rest of you think you’re working in the White House. You might be an expert. And you told your parents you’re working in the White House. And this guy named Reince Priebus comes along and tells you your office is across the street. The next time you want to go to the Oval Office you have to find out if you can see the president. You’re going to be a deputy assistant and you might not even have a title. That’s how you start.
Imagine, now, every campaign, whether the Trump campaign or the Clinton campaign, always has tension. And I am the head of the RNC and I’m going to bring in the people I’ve always worked with. That’s how you start and it is a very difficult place to begin.
And the other thing you have is a lot of people who have a lot of influence around you. White Houses have a lot of people with huge titles but they don’t have a job. What is a senior advisor? It’s to be determined. Their job is they are influencing the principle. As chief of staff, you have a job to do. The CEOs of every airline are coming in. The CEOs of credit unions are coming in. I have to make sure the right people are in the room, they are vetted, the message is right. It’s a difficult job.
And the chief of staff has to make sure to always be able to get the president to a safe place in two minutes to vetting every person who meets with the president.
Nussle: We see the West Wing version of the job. After you get organized, what is the role like? How long is your day?
McLarty: I think essentially, one, you have to make absolutely certain you are on the same page as the president of the United States. You’re a chief of staff, which sounds regal, but you are on staff and serve at the pleasure of the president. You have to have a level of trust, provide appropriate criticism and in appropriate settings. You have to organize not just the White House staff, but the cabinet, which is absolutely critical to carrying out the president’s agenda.
Think about leading your organizations. You have to make sure you engage with those who brung you in an election, and those who didn’t, and you as president of the United States are trying to bring people together.
You have to be very mindful of foreign policy. In our case, Gov. Clinton had had a lot of foreign policy experience for a governor, but it’s not like he had been on the Senate Armed Forces committee.
The most sacred responsibility of any president, any commander in chief, is the safety and security of Americans. So, to say the job is multifaceted and has relatively long hours would be an underestimate.
Nussle: What were you’re best and worst days?
McLarty: One similarity to the West Wing is you do have highs and lows in the White House. There are days you feel great about what you’re doing and what you’re achieving and days you feel the sky is falling.
One of the real challenges and responsibilities of any chief of staff, frankly, is just to stay grounded, stay steady, remember who you are and where you came from and why in the world you came to Washington. The best days for me were twofold.
When we passed our economic plan, it did set the marker down for a more responsible fiscal discipline. As a Baby Boomer I was not sure we could balance the budget when we began; I thought we might be able to slow the growth of the deficit. The economy got going, we had technology gains, we had growth without inflation, and the biggest policy moment was seeing that plan pass and become the foundation of growth.
The other best moment is when you meet someone who has been affected and they tell you about how it made a difference in their life.
The lowest moment was the bombing in Oklahoma City, which came out of the blue. It was in the heartland. It was a horrific, tragic loss of life. That was so devastating and concerning. The entire federal government and state government really went to work, and Gov. Keating, a Republican governor from Oklahoma, was just superb to work with. We turned that tragedy, I think, into something that unified people and brought them together.
Priebus: For me, the best day was the first day, not because things got bad after that. There were a lot of good moments. But the first day to me was something very special. Even though I had been very political, the very first time I ever went inside the West Wing was when I became chief of staff. After the inauguration, when the president got done with the executive orders, we went to the residence and we were eating a buffet and President Trump asked, ‘Do you want to go down to the Oval Office?’ I said that would be great. It’s a walk from the residence to the Oval Office and it’s dark. And we walk into the Oval Office. It’s dark. It’s quiet. I look around and President Trump is just staring up and he looked at me and he said, ‘Wow.’ And it was one of the first times I could see the weight of the country on him. He said, ‘Can you believe it?’ I said I couldn’t. I went to my office and there was nothing but a bible verse on the table left for me and a password to the computer. There were no lessons. That’s it.
The worst day? There is always drama in White Houses. I walked into the Oval and in spite of thinking I knew everything that was going on for the day, I saw a 30-something mom with two little kids dressed up so cute and I thought ‘What is going on?’ This was at the time we were talking about bombs being made in laptops and we were worried some planes would come to U.S. with a bomb next to the window that would blow up planes.
So, Gen. Mattis said, ‘We’ve got a moonless night in Yemen, we’ve got an Isis cell. This is a problem.’ Everyone agreed to (a plan to attack the cell), but there are also discussions and conversations, a legal process. I realized that the mom is the wife of the Navy SEAL who died in Yemen. Those little kids had no idea dad wasn’t coming back. At that moment, and I don’t mean it in any way that is not honorable, I realized how easy it was for me to sit in that room, and it was unanimous vote, to think about how you say yes, that’s a good idea.
The result is no husband, no father, no life but a heroic memory, and you played a role. That is life in the White House.
Nussle: With Ukraine happening before our eyes and all of us holding our collective breath, give us a glimpse of the security discussion behind the scenes.
McLarty: We had a similar moment with President-elect Clinton the night before the swearing in ceremony in the Blair House right across from the White House. That’s when you get the security briefing, the passing of the football and the nuclear codes. In our case it was Gen. Colin Powell who filled up that room when he came into brief us. It was so sobering how short a time you have to react to a nuclear threat. I will never forget my eyes meeting President-Elect Clinton’s eyes (and realizing) this is the most sacred responsibility you have.
You then go to work the next day and once you are sworn in you have an overwhelming amount to do. You get into that work and what you’ve got to get done. You have got to have a really good relationship with the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. It’s a lot of ground to cover. You have to have the trust and ability to communicate.
You normally have a situation room. You have the principals who usually have a pre-meeting with their deputies. The chief of staff is there and after consultations you have to make decisions on who is going to be in that meeting. That’s where you have a lot of opportunities to say No. N.O. You convene the meeting and get the agenda set. You have to make sure the VP is properly engaged. In our case, we would not only consult with members of Congress who had a wealth of knowledge about international affairs, but with the military.
We also from time to time would use outside advisors who were not part of the administration, such as Henry Kissinger, to ensure we had a broader perspective.
Priebus: What’s happening today is that principals of national security in the United States are meeting in the situation room, probably every day. They have their top commanders around the world on video screens. The secretary of the Treasury is there. The head of the DoD is there. CIA is there. The Secretary of State is there. They are talking about decision memos that need to be made today about our response in to Ukraine.
McLarty: Two other aspects I think are interesting. There will be consultations with international leaders. With Ukraine, the consultation with international leaders is absolutely crucial. Part of any effective diplomacy is human relationships. You have to have respect and trust with your fellow leaders. The second thing I would note is how far we have come with technology. You see people on screen—we didn’t have that level of technology even in the 1990s.
Nussle: Too many folks are worried about politics and democracy. How do you think about that? What can we do to bring our country together?
Priebus: The moment that you get overly worried about division in our democracy and country you have a unifying situation that occurs. It can be scary. This Ukraine/Russia situation has pretty much unified the country.
In the end we all love our country. When we have crises, we come together as Americans. When we put the idea of America on the line, I would venture to guess that every one of us would step up to the plate and lock arms and not worry about whether you are a Republican or a Democrat.
When I left the White House, I remember looking at the White House. There is nothing on the outside that tells you who the president and party are on the inside.
What has happened in America is our media has created a toxic situation. Division is profit. Unity is not. There is only money in division.
This is one of the most divisive times in history. But only 10% of House races are in play. (Representatives have) a better chance of being reelected than waking up tomorrow. You tell me what’s going to happen. His district loves him. My district loves me. So, when people ask why can’t they just work together, what you’re really saying is why can’t 90% of the members of the House do things their districts don’t want them to do--and do those things in a media environment where division is profitable.
All the little fights we have are hard to win. The big ones are easy to win because we love our country more than anything else.
McLarty: I think, number one, I would encourage us to think about our children and particularly our grandchildren. That’s what’s at stake here--the future of our country and our democracy.
To be strong abroad, which is one of the questions now, we have to be strong at home, particularly with the rise of China and India close behind it. You can see these tectonic plates shifting. It is essential we are more united at home than we are.