Leadership SeatOffices · crises · institutions

Historical reconstruction24 February–15 March 2022 (reconstruction); officeholder brief current as of September 2026

You are Susie Wiles · White House Chief of Staff, Executive Office of the President

The Week the Paper Had to Move

Forks are the kinds of choices the office actually faced. The documented path is labelled in the rationale.

Four shops, one morning

Stakes · Whether the President’s first invasion-day decisions arrive as one staffed package or as four uncoordinated asks.

It is 24 February 2022. Russian forces have crossed into Ukraine. Chief of Staff Ron Klain faces four asks: Sullivan and the National Security Council (NSC) want speech and sanctions; OMB Director Shalanda Young and need a before the mid-March cliff; Secretary Austin wants NATO eastern-flank posture; communications wants no U.S. boots in Ukraine.

Four asks, not one decision. Let them hit the Oval in walk-in order and President Biden announces a sentence Defense has not staffed.

Security first, money first, or walk-ins — that is the fork.

Constraints of the office here

— You control time, paper flow, and the room. You cannot issue military orders or appropriate money.
— The President can take a walk-in and skip your sequence.

Options · keys 1–3

Powers of this office

This office can

Control the President’s schedule, the paper that reaches the Resolute Desk, and who is in the room.
Hire and fire (or recommend firing) senior White House staff, and referee cabinet access.
Decide whether a National Security Council paper, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cost, and a legislative ask land as one decision or three.
Use the Chief of Staff’s meeting to kill, delay, or force a presidential choice.

This office cannot

Issue military or statutory orders in the President’s name without actual presidential decision.
Appropriate money. Congress does that. OMB only budgets.
Make a cabinet secretary stop walking into the Oval if the President takes the walk-in.
Substitute for Senate-confirmed officers on authorities that the law vests in them.

Veto players

The President
A Chief of Staff who bottlenecks a principal the President wants to hear loses the job. Influence is borrowed.
National Security Advisor, OMB Director, and cabinet secretaries
They can go around you. Your power is process, until process is optional.
Congressional leadership
A supplemental, a nomination, or a continuing resolution can blow up a managed week.
The press and rival staff factions
Leaks are how bypassed principals punish a tight paper flow.

What this case rests on

Treaties, votes, speeches, and dates a seminar can open.

Sources

1. White House Transition Project, The Office of the Chief of Staff (in brief)
Gatekeeping, paper flow, honest-broker role, and walk-in privileges as a presidential choice.
2. CRS, The Executive Office of the President: An Historical Overview (98-606)
White House Office and OMB as Executive Office units serving the President.
3. CRS, Office of Management and Budget (OMB): An Overview (RS21665)
OMB prepares the budget request and steers presidential legislative proposals; it does not appropriate.
4. President Biden, remarks on Russia’s attack on Ukraine (24 February 2022)
Forces ‘are not and will not be engaged’ in Ukraine; NATO eastern-flank deployments; sanctions.
5. OMB, “Meeting Urgent Needs” (3 March 2022)
Request to include Ukraine supplemental funding in the package lawmakers were finishing ahead of the 11 March deadline; $10 billion identified in the public write-up.
6. CRS, U.S. Assistance for Ukraine (R47275)
Administration request 2 March 2022; Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022 (P.L. 117-103, Div. N) enacted 15 March 2022 at $13.6 billion.
7. Washington Post, “Inside Biden’s last-ditch attempts to stop Putin in Ukraine” (25 February 2022)
Contemporaneous account of Situation Room meetings and the Biden process in the days around the invasion.
8. CBS News, Ron Klain on sanctions: “Nothing on the economic side is off the table”
Chief of Staff as public surrogate on the economic track; presidential decision on timing reserved.

Glossary

Aman
Israeli military intelligence directorate (Agaf HaModi'in).
Article 4
North Atlantic Treaty clause requiring consultation when an Ally’s security is threatened.
Article 5
NATO’s collective-defence clause: an armed attack on one Ally is an attack on all.
Article 6
North Atlantic Treaty clause that sets the geographic area for Articles 5 and 4.
Assembly of Experts
An elected clerical body that appoints and, in theory, supervises the Supreme Leader.
AUM
Assets under management — the market value of client money an asset manager invests.
CMC
Central Military Commission — the body that commands China’s armed forces.
College
The College of Commissioners — the Commission’s political cabinet of 27, one per member state.
Consensus
NATO’s decision rule: a decision stands only if no Ally objects.
continuing resolution
A short-term law that keeps agencies funded at existing levels when regular appropriations have not passed.
ESG
Environmental, social, and governance — a contested label for non-financial factors in investing.
ETF
Exchange-traded fund — a fund whose shares trade on an exchange throughout the day.

Dotted terms in the briefing open the full note. The shared glossary lists core IR and finance vocabulary.