Donald Trump on Sunday announced that Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and a Washington insider who worked his way up the ranks of the Wisconsin Republican Party, will be his White House chief of staff.
Trump also named Stephen Bannon, the former head of a right-wing website and his campaign's chief executive officer, as his senior counselor and chief strategist. In a statement, Trump's transition team said Priebus, who is close friends with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and Bannon will work "as equal partners to transform the federal government." This is a classic Trump move, The New York Times notes, consistent with the "management style in his businesses and in his campaign: creating rival power structures beneath him and encouraging them to battle it out."
Several people familiar with the decisions being made by the transition team told the Times that Trump does listen to advice from his children and daughter Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner, who told Trump not to pick anyone controversial for the chief of staff position. Kushner has no experience in politics or government, but often has the last word in advising Trump, the Times says.
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