A new national security aide to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stepped down on Sunday, only two days after being officially named to the job, after a behind-the-scenes White House argument hit the headlines, a White House official said.
The appointment of Jon Lerner to Pence’s team was one of the more short-lived personnel moves in a White House known for turbulent staff turnover and infighting, and the first to envelope the vice president, who works hard to stay out of the drama.
Pence’s office had announced on Friday that Jon Lerner, a senior aide to United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, would become Pence’s top adviser on foreign policy issues. By Sunday night, the vice president’s office had issued a second statement that Lerner had withdrawn.
Lerner had backed Republican Senator Marco Rubio during the primary race to pick the party’s candidate ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Pence phoned Trump and cleared up the tension, the official said. But the short-lived drama became public on Sunday in a report by Axios which said that Trump had initially told his chief of staff John Kelly to ax the appointment and questioned why Pence would have made the pick.
Lerner will continue working for Haley, the official said.