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Ayers' withdrawal from consideration seemed to be a sudden decision, coming after he had extensive conversations with the president about the role.

\"PHOTO:
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump arrives at the White House, Dec. 7, 2018.
>

On Saturday, Trump seemed confident he could name a successor.

\"John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. We’ll be announcing who will be taking John’s place, it might be on an interim basis,\" Trump said. \"I’ll be announcing that over the next day or two,\" Trump told reporters on Saturday as he departed for the Army-Navy game.

\"PHOTO:
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
PHOTO: Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff Nick Ayers and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster arrive in the Rose Garden before a press conference at the White House, Oct. 23, 2017 in Washington.
>

After those remarks, reports surfaced that Ayers was only willing to accept the role on a temporary basis.

Sources familiar with the deliberations say President Trump had been favored Ayers for the role because of what he saw as his political acumen, a quality that the president saw as lacking with John Kelly.

Kelly has served in the role of chief of staff since July 2017 and was initially credited with bringing order to a chaotic White House after the president's first chief of staff Reince Priebus lasted in the role for less than 200 days.

Earlier this year President Trump had asked Kelly to remain in the job through his 2020 reelection campaign. However, Kelly's departure is not unexpected.

Kelly's relationship with the president has been at times strained over the course of his 16 months on the job and his eventual departure has been speculated for the last several weeks.

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