The following article by Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website September 1, 2017:
John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has regimented the flow of paper, people and information inundating an omnivorous and undisciplined President Trump. Credit Al Drago for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Trump was in an especially ornery mood after staff members gently suggested he refrain from injecting politics into day-to-day issues of governing after last month’s raucous rally in Arizona, and he responded by lashing out at the most senior aide in his presence.
It happened to be his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly.
Mr. Kelly, the former Marine general brought in five weeks ago as the successor to Reince Priebus, reacted calmly, but he later told other White House staff members that he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country. In the future, he said, he would not abide such treatment, according to three people familiar with the exchange. Continue reading “Forceful Chief of Staff Grates on Trump, and the Feeling Is Mutual”
The following article by Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website August 31, 2017:
In his first month as President Trump’s chief of staff, John F. Kelly has brought discipline to the White House, sometimes to the frustration of Trump. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)
The following article by Ashley Parker and Robert Costa was posted on the Washington Post website August 16, 2017:
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — As the new White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly routes all calls to and from President Trump through the White House switchboard, where he can sign off on them. He stanches the flow of information reaching the president’s desk. And he requires that all staff members — including Trump’s relatives — go through him to reach the president.
But none of those attempts at discipline mattered this week. Instead, Kelly stood to the side as Trump upended his new chief of staff’s carefully scripted plans — pinballing through an impromptu and combative news conference in New York in which he inflamed another self-inflicted controversy by comparing the actions of white supremacist groups at a deadly rally in Charlottesville last weekend with the counterprotesters who came to oppose them. Continue reading “Trump’s lack of discipline leaves new chief of staff frustrated and dismayed”
The following article by Amy B. Wang was posted on the Washington Post website July 31, 2017:
President Trump said his new chief of staff John Kelly will do a “tremendous job,” after his swearing-in on July 31. “We have a tremendous group of support, the country is optimistic and I think the general will just add to it,” Trump said. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
Still, Kelly faces a daunting job if he wants to succeed: to restore order to a White House that has been in turmoil since almost the very beginning of Trump’s presidency. And while Kelly has a long history of enforcing order at high levels, there’s an even longer history of White House chiefs of staff who have failed at their jobs, often because of circumstances outside of their control or lessons not learned early enough. Continue reading “John Kelly’s greatest challenge now is ‘without question’ Trump himself, expert says”
The following article by Josh Rogin was posted on the Washington Post website February 4, 2017:
Editor’s Note: Prior to publication of this column, The Post sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security but not from the White House. We should have done both. The article has been updated. – Fred Hiatt
UPDATE (Feb. 4, 6:13 p.m.): The article has been updated to reflect comments from White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The article previously stated that Stephen K. Bannon visited Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly’s office on Jan. 28. Spicer said Bannon did not make such a visit. He also said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Bannon did not participate in a 2 a.m. conference call on Jan. 29. The article also previously stated that President Trump approved a pause in executive orders pending new procedures. According to Spicer, it was White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, rather than the president, who approved the new procedures, but not a pause.
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly pauses while speaking at a news conference in Washington on Jan. 31. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)
Over the weekend of Jan. 28-29, as airport protests raged over President Trump’s executive order on immigration, the man charged with implementing the order, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, had a plan. He would issue a waiver for lawful permanent residents, a.k.a. green-card holders, from the seven majority-Muslim countries whose citizens had been banned from entering the United States.
White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon wanted to stop Kelly in his tracks and told him not to issue the order. Kelly, according to two administration officials familiar with the confrontation, refused to comply. That was the beginning of a weekend of negotiations among senior Trump administration staffers that led, on Sunday, Jan. 29, to a White House decision to change the process for the issuance of executive orders. Continue reading “Inside the White House-Cabinet battle over Trump’s immigration order”
