After weeks of discussions about his future, Zachary D. Fuentes, the 36-year-old deputy White House chief of staff, had a plan.
Mr. Fuentes told colleagues that after his mentor, John F. Kelly, left his job as chief of staff at the end of the year, he would “hide out” at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, for six months, remaining on the payroll in a nebulous role. Then, in July, when he had completed 15 years of service in the Coast Guard, Mr. Fuentes — an active-duty officer — would take advantage of an early retirement program.
Mr. Fuentes has become one of the most controversial aides inside the West Wing, earning nicknames like “Zotus” (Zach of the United States) and “prime minister” for his approach to other White House officials. Even before Mr. Kelly was asked by Mr. Trump this month to leave, Mr. Fuentes had been looking for a way out, after the president had begun to sour on him. For weeks, Mr. Trump has complained about both Mr. Kelly and Mr. Fuentes, primarily over the debacle of the president’s canceled visit to an American military cemetery near Paris in November.
