Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, as recently as late last year explored the possibility of becoming president of the University of South Carolina, four people familiar with the discussions said.

Mr. Mulvaney, a congressman from South Carolina for six years before joining the Trump administration, initiated a discussion with a senior official at the university late last year about the position, which is going to become open this summer.

By then, Mr. Mulvaney already had two other jobs — he led the federal Office of Management and Budget, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But he was weeks away from getting a third job that he had lobbied President Trump for over several months: White House chief of staff.

Mr. Mulvaney got the job in an “acting” capacity, a move that Mr. Trump said over the weekend gives him “flexibility” with various appointments, after being replaced with a permanent director at the consumer bureau. But chief of staff is not a cabinet-level position requiring Senate confirmation, so it is unclear why the “acting” designation has remained.

As of last week, a person close to Mr. Mulvaney said he is still interested in the presidency of his home state university, which will become open this summer.

Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, said that was not the case.

“Mick Mulvaney is focused on faithfully executing the job the president has asked him to do, and as such he is not interested in any other positions,” Mr. Gidley said.

A spokesman for the university did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Holding any position under Mr. Trump for a prolonged period can be problematic. The president is mercurial, and often loses faith in top-level staff members after a few months.

But so far Mr. Mulvaney seems determined to do things differently from his two predecessors, Reince Priebus and John F. Kelly. He has made clear publicly that he will not try to act as a check on the president, and will instead focus on managing a staff plagued by chronic dysfunction.

Over the weekend, Mr. Mulvaney took West Wing aides to a senior staff retreat at Camp David, which Mr. Trump also attended. Aides who attended said Mr. Mulvaney was well received.

Elected to Congress in the Tea Party wave of 2010, Mr. Mulvaney made his name on Capitol Hill as a hard-liner. His conservative politics and ties to Mr. Trump have unsettled some people close to the university, which is on a search to replace Harris Pastides, the current president.

But Mr. Mulvaney is not the only high-profile Republican whose name is being discussed as a replacement: Andrew H. Card Jr., former President George W. Bush’s chief of staff and a graduate of the University of South Carolina, is also being eyed for the post by some influential figures in the state.

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