Donald Trump’s new chief of staff could not be more different than the president himself.
Whereas Trump has presided over A White House that has been roiled by chaos….
The problem with this is that we see changing narratives.
disorder
You can’t make up what’s going on!
and backstabbing.
He’s a showboat.
He’s a grandstander.
General John Kelly is known for his insistence on discipline, order, and a stable chain of command.
While Trump never served in the military, he claims to have great respect for the generals.
And Kelly fits the bill.
He’s a retired four-star general with a decorated 42-year military career.
Kelly’s challenge is not only to bring order to the White House, but to help Trump push
Trump’s agenda through and unruly Republican Congress
that has already defied the president on big issues like healthcare.
This is how a career soldier found himself the gatekeeper to the most disorderly
White House in modern history.
John Francis Kelly was born on May 11, 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts into an Irish Catholic family.
At 16 he hitchhiked and hopped trains across America until he joined the Merchant Marines.
Then, in 1970 he enlisted in the US Marine Corps, seeking higher education.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts and a Master’s of Science
in National Security Studies from Georgetown.
After rising through the ranks of the military, Kelly became a 4-star general, eventually
becoming head of the US Southern Command in 2012.
Perhaps his strongest suit is both his leadership skills and the perception of his leadership skills.
That’s Margaret Talev.
I’m the White House Correspondent for Bloomberg and I cover President Donald J. Trump.
On Jan 20, 2017, Trump tapped Kelly as Secretary of Homeland Security.
In those very early months of the Trump Administration General Kelly helped carry out and
defend his immigration policies with the travel ban, and with the president’s now infamous tweet accusing
President Obama of having tapped him at Trump Tower.
If the president of the United States said that, he’s got his reasons.
And so president Trump came to see general Kelly as supportive.
After leading the department for 6 months, his tenure was cut short.
John Kelly was announced on a Friday in the middle of a rain storm in Washington and his
John Kelly will do a fantastic job.
His first day on the job was Monday morning.
and Anthony Scaramucci was out!
It all happened really in the blink of an eye.
The message that he sent by dismissing Anthony Scaramucci so quickly on day one was unmistakable to everybody at the White House.
While keeping strict order and control in the White House is one of the main responsibilities
of the Chief of Staff, it remains to be seen if Kelly has the political acumen to navigate the murky partisan waters of DC politics.
Unlike previous chiefs of staff, Kelly has no experience playing politics, and has admitted
to having little patience for Capitol Hill.
If lawmakers do not like the laws that they have sworn to enforce,
then they should have the courage and the skill to change those laws.
Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.
Its only 6 months in but it’s been a very rocky 6 months.
No. no.
Next question.
It’s his job to calm the waters, to get the president and congress working together
so that he can execute the president’s mission.
Now his reputation thus far is being sort of averse to that process, but look that hasn’t
been his job until now.
General Kelly will go down in terms of the position of Chief of Staff
One of the great ever.
Will Kelly be the first staff member to reign in and tame the Trump White House?
Or will he be pushed out or resign like so many before him.
Whether they can actually coexist and provide sort of a yin and a yang to one another is
really the question to be determined.
The answer to that question will probably hold the key to how successful John Kelly can be.