Top WH legislative aide to exit this summer

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House director of legislative affairs Marc Short has told staff that he’ll be leaving the position this summer.

Two White House officials said Short disclosed his plans Friday. He did not offer an exact date, but said he would leave sometime this summer. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and demanded anonymity.

Short has led Trump’s legislative agenda, which has been a mixed success during his first 18 months in office. The biggest achievement with Congress was the passage of the tax cut bill in late 2017. But the administration has unsuccessfully pushed to overhaul President Barack Obama’s health care law and has struggled to develop compromise legislation on immigration.

Trump has frequently undercut the work of his legislative affairs team, criticizing deals they have negotiated and trying to broker some of his own without their input.

Just Friday, Trump sowed a fresh round of confusion over an eleventh-hour GOP plan to bring up immigration legislation ahead of the midterm elections, telling reporters that he opposes a “moderate” proposal put forward by House Republicans to fund a wall along the Mexico border and a path to citizenship for some immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children.

Trump was also critical of the GOP’s deficit-raising budget bill, nearly threatening to veto it over its increased spending, putting his legislative staff in a bind on a measure they’d helped draft.

Short’s exit will be the latest in a series of high-profile departures in the last several months, as the Trump White House continues to set records for staff turnover. Earlier this year, Trump bade farewell to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and top economic aide Gary Cohn, among others.

Short was named to the position before Trump took office in 2017. During the 2016 campaign, he served as communications director for Vice President Mike Pence. His past roles include serving as president of Freedom Partners, the billionaire Koch brothers’ chamber of commerce-styled group.

Short did not immediately respond to requests for comment.