Trump names NC congressman Meadows new White House chief of staff

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump announced Friday on Twitter that North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows will serve as new White House Chief of Staff.

Meadows replaces Acting Chief Mick Mulvaney, who had been in the role for more than a year, and will become the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, Trump said.

"I have long known and worked with Mark, and the relationship is a very good one," Trump said in his tweet.

The long-rumored move makes Meadows, who announced he was not seeking reelection for his House seat from North Carolina, effectively Trump's fourth chief of staff since taking office in 2017.

Mulvaney had been taking on a more and more narrow role at the White House in recent months. And Trump has been eyeing the change for months, but wanted to wait until after impeachment, The Associated Press said, citing a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Mulvaney's allies, however, had long brushed off rumblings of his imminent departure and had said as recently as last month that he planned to stay at least through the election in November.

Meadows, a Republican, is in his fourth term representing North Carolina's 11th District, in the western part of the state.

He served two consecutive terms as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations from 2015-2019.

Meadows and his wife, Debbie, have two grown children and one granddaughter.