President Trump didn't bother telling his own acting chief of staff about the raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ahead of time, NBC News reports.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the report states, learned about the hugely significant raid only "after the operation was already underway" and received a briefing on Saturday night. In contrast, Bill Daley, chief of staff for former President Obama, was not only aware of the Osama bin Laden raid but was present while the president monitored it.
"It's really unprecedented, and to me it's just a symptom of a total breakdown in the White House functions," Chris Whipple, an expert who authored a book about White House chiefs of staff, told NBC. Andrew Card, chief of staff under former President George W. Bush, also said, "I'm baffled by it."
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Mulvaney was reportedly home in South Carolina for the weekend, with a White House official telling NBC he "was not able to get to a secure location in time to participate" but "was briefed on [the raid's] success upon conclusion."
This report comes amid questions about Mulvaney's future in the White House following a widely-panned press conference during which he seemed to accidentally admit to a quid pro quo in the Ukraine scandal, only to immediately backtrack. Axios' Jonathan Swan, though, is skeptical that his departure is imminent, tweeting Wednesday, "every conversation I've had with people around Trump over last 24 hours makes me think Mulvaney won’t be fired any time soon."
Still, NBC News notes Mulvaney being kept out of the loop on the raid at least suggests "he is increasingly sidelined" in the White House. Whipple summed it up by saying, "he really is an invisible man at this point."
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