--- title: Donald Trump: Reince Priebus Could Be Chief of Staff description: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is the inside favorite to serve as chief of staff in Donald Trump's administration. canonical: https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-09T06:58:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T16:16:02.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Reince Priebus Under Consideration as Chief of Staff og:description: "Trump legit listens to him." og:url: https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20d290561464605/69889369524fc067acdf801e/donald-trump-reince-priebus.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, at a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Reince Priebus Under Consideration as Chief of Staff twitter:description: "Trump legit listens to him." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20d290561464605/69889369524fc067acdf801e/donald-trump-reince-priebus.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Reince Priebus Under Consideration as Donald Trump's Chief of Staff > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Watch Donald Trump's Full Presidential Acceptance Speech [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Donald Trump's Full Presidential Acceptance Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wcGbUXRn.m3u8) (15:30)  _Published 2016-11-09. In one of the most shocking U.S. elections in modern political history, Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:16 PM UTCPublished: Nov 9, 2016 6:58 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, at a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, at a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:16 PM UTCPublished: Nov 9, 2016 6:58 AM UTC Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is the inside favorite to serve as chief of staff in [President-elect Donald Trump’s Administration](http://time.com/4561400/election-results-2016-hillary-clinton-donald-trump), according to two senior sources familiar with the initial discussions. Cautioning that Trump’s transition is a work in progress, the sources said Priebus, a longtime operative who has run the RNC over the last six years and took on a leading role in managing the mercurial candidate, is “very likely” to serve in the key role. “He is very likely Chief of Staff,” said one person familiar with the conversations. “Trump legit listens to him.” Priebus took on a leading role in encouraging Trump to stay on message in the final weeks of the campaign, holding multiple calls with the candidate daily since he became the presumptive nominee in May, and frequently traveling on his plane. Under Priebus’ leadership the RNC took on an unprecedented role in managing the nuts-and-bolts of Trump’s data, field, and finance operations. Also worth adding, Priebus, a Wisconsinite, is a key ally of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/"},"headline":"Reince Priebus Under Consideration as Donald Trump's Chief of Staff","datePublished":"2016-11-09T06:58:22.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T16:16:02.000Z","description":"Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is the inside favorite to serve as chief of staff in Donald Trump's administration.","url":"https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","White House","Reince Priebus","Paul Ryan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20d290561464605/69889369524fc067acdf801e/donald-trump-reince-priebus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd20d290561464605/69889369524fc067acdf801e/donald-trump-reince-priebus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, at a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, at a debate sponsored by Fox News at the Fox Theatre on March 3, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/","name":"Reince Priebus Under Consideration as Donald Trump's Chief of Staff"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Donald Trump's Full Presidential Acceptance Speech","description":"In one of the most shocking U.S. elections in modern political history, Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wcGbUXRn/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-11-09T08:38:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wcGbUXRn.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/","duration":"PT15M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4563826/donald-trump-administration-reince-priebus/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```