(UTV|Impeachment of Donald Trump) – US President Donald Trump has replaced his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, whose departure had long been rumoured.
He said North Carolina lawmaker Mark Meadows would take over the job, a development tipped for weeks.
Mr Trump said Mr Mulvaney would become US special envoy to Northern Ireland.
Mr Mulvaney was perceived to have implicated the president in last year’s impeachment inquiry in an off-the-cuff remark at the White House podium.
When Mr Mulvaney gave a rare White House press conference last October, he shrugged off criticism over an alleged corrupt deal with Ukraine by saying: “We do that all the time.”
Mr Trump was reportedly outraged by the gaffe.
Mr Mulvaney then walked back his comments in a written statement that said: “Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election.”
That same month the chief of staff was seen as having have made another slip-up while attempting to defend the president from criticism over a plan, later cancelled, to hold this year’s G7 summit at one of his resorts in Florida.
Mr Mulvaney told Fox News that “at the end of the day he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business”, prompting the show’s host to point out that Mr Trump was president of the United States, not a hotel executive.