[2] Edwin Meese held the position during the first term of President Ronald Reagan, and was highly influential inside the White House.

[3] Meese became United States attorney general during Reagan's second term as president and the position was left vacant.

During the administration of George W. Bush, the position oversaw the communications, media affairs, speechwriting, and press offices.

[4] Under the Obama administration, the position was initially abolished and the duties of the office transferred to three senior advisors: David Axelrod,[5][6] Pete Rouse,[6][7] and Valerie Jarrett,[8] who also held the title Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison.

[9][10] John Podesta was the last person to hold the position before he left to join the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign of 2016 as chairman.

[13] With equivalent standing to the chief of staff and a portfolio that hewed closely to the pre-Clinton iteration of the position, Bannon was named to the Principals Committee of the National Security Council in a January 2017 executive order that also removed the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the committee.

[15] After Bannon's departure from the White House in August 2017, Johnny DeStefano was appointed to the job[16] in February 2018, with responsibility for overseeing the offices of presidential personnel, political affairs, and public liaison.

President Bush only appointed a counselor, who was a member of his Cabinet during the last 11 months of his single term in the White House.