John Kelly’s greatest challenge now is ‘without question’ Trump himself, expert says

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

President Trump jolted the White House yet again Friday when he announced that he was ousting embattled chief of staff Reince Priebus, instead bringing into the role Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly. Immediately, Washington insiders contrasted Priebus with Kelly, a retired four-star general and reported disciplinarian who “won’t suffer idiots and fools.”

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”