Three years after he was sworn in as president of the United States, one thing that is painfully obvious about Donald J. Trump is that he insists on having unquestioning loyalists in his administration and has zero tolerance for those who aren’t. That’s why Attorney General William Barr, White House Adviser Kellyanne Conway, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are still in his good graces and why former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former Defense Secretary James Mattis are all gone. Another major departure from the Trump Administration was that of Marine Corps veteran John F. Kelly, who served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before becoming White House chief of staff in July 2017 and remaining in that position until early January 2019.
Like Bolton, Tillerson and Mattis, Kelly grew incredibly frustrated with Trump; nonetheless, Kelly mostly held his tongue after leaving the White House. But the retired Marine Corps general, during a 75-minute speech and Q&A session at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, New Jersey on Wednesday night, February 12, spoke candidly and frankly about Trump. And Kelly wasn’t shy about criticizing the president, who is angrily lashing out at him on Twitter.
The morning after Kelly’s Morristown appearance, Peter Nicholas covered the event in The Atlantic. Trump, on Twitter, boasted about firing Kelly and posted, “When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X’s, he misses the action & just can’t keep his mouth shut, which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do.” Continue reading.