Who is widely considered to be the worst Chief of Staff in US history

[Zinneke]

Discuss

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I don't know about "in US history," but Reince Priebus was widely considered to be absolutely terrible, even by the already-low standards of Trump lackeys.

[Ancestral Republican]

Well Donald Regan committed high treason (Iran-Contra) so that's probably as good a claim as any.

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

I don't know about "in US history," but Reince Priebus was widely considered to be absolutely terrible, even by the already-low standards of Trump lackeys.

Reminds me of my favorite story from Priebus's time as CoS.

[Del Tachi]

WI:  Carter's CoS, 1977 to 1979

[LabourJersey]

WI:  Carter's CoS, 1977 to 1979

Carter not hiring a Chief of Staff was a tremendous mistake on his part, and meant he over-relied on the input of the "Georgia mafia" too much.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Wasn't Bill Clinton's first chief of staff pretty terrible too?

[darklordoftech]

Haldeman was one of the main perpetrators of Watergate.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Any of Trump's? Especially considering he barely ever listened to any of them.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Haldeman was one of the main perpetrators of Watergate.

Haldeman was the worst. all things considered.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Haldeman was one of the main perpetrators of Watergate.

Meadows was one of the main perpetrators of January 6.

[Indy Texas]

Well Donald Regan committed high treason (Iran-Contra) so that's probably as good a claim as any.

He was the fall guy. But also kind of hilarious that Ronald Reagan's chief of staff was named Donald Regan.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

Wasn't Bill Clinton's first chief of staff pretty terrible too?

Mack McLarty. He was an Arkansas utility executive and by his own admission was completely in over his head.

[HisGrace]

As much as I love to engage in (unironic) Trump Derangement Syndrome and name him the worst for everything, hard to argue against Haldeman or Regan. Or Carter's invisible CoS, LOL.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

Given the level of the knowledge here of U.S history, I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned John Sununu so far. He was an extremely nasty person who convinced George H W Bush to deny, for political purposes. the reality of climate change rather than start to address it.

Not to intentionally reference Trent Lott, but if it hadn't have been for Sununu the world might not have all the problems it has now.

From wiki: In his report Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change, Nathaniel Rich wrote that in November 1989 Sununu prevented the signing of a 67-nation commitment at the Noordwijk Climate Conference to freeze carbon dioxide emissions, with a reduction of 20 percent by 2005, and singled him out as a force starting coordinated efforts to bewilder the public on the topic of global warming and changing it from an urgent, nonpartisan and unimpeachable issue to a political one.

Of course, based on the politics, it's impossible to deny that Sununu was just convincing H W Bush to not fight the onslaught of lies they knew would be coming from the billionaire fossil fuel sector elites.

However, at least, also from Wiki
Sununu recommended David Souter of New Hampshire to President George H. W. Bush for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, at the behest of his close friend, then-U.S. Senator and fellow New Hampshirite Warren Rudman. The Wall Street Journal described the events leading up to the appointment of the "liberal jurist" in a 2000 editorial, saying Rudman in his "Yankee Republican liberalism" took "pride in recounting how he sold Mr. Souter to gullible White House chief of staff John Sununu as a confirmable conservative. Then they both sold the judge to President Bush, who wanted above all else to avoid a confirmation battle [after Robert Bork]." Rudman wrote in his memoir that he had "suspected all along" that Souter would not "overturn activist liberal precedents." Sununu later said that he had "a lot of disappointment" about Souter's positions on the Court and would have preferred him to be more similar to Justice Antonin Scalia.

And apparently he was the one who convinced George H.W Bush to sign on to tax increases abandoning his 'no new taxes' pledge. That was good policy, but possibly bad for politics as it likely increased cynicism although polling showed that very few voters actually believed the no new taxes pledge to begin with. But, with polling, who knows if the respondents are actually being honest with questions like these.

[Yoda]

Not sure about the worst ever, but you don't have to go back too far to find a terrible one. Mark Meadows literally committed voter fraud.

[Sestak]

jeff zients