With the national spotlight trained squarely on him since Reince Priebus’ exit, new White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly wasted no time assessing the situation. He encouraged President Donald Trump to remove Anthony Scaramucci after a 10-day tenure as White House communications director on his first day in office. Meanwhile, new reports indicating Kelly’s initial distaste with the administration have begun to surface, including a new Associated Press story detailing his collaboration with Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis when the pair first joined the White House.
According to the report, the two secretaries “agreed in the earliest weeks of Trump’s presidency that one of them should remain in the United States at all times.” Why? So that Kelly, Mattis and their administration allies would be able to “keep tabs” on the constant stream of new and updated orders coming from the president’s office, be they completed policies with all hands on deck, or off-the-cuff decisions that were all too characteristic of Trump himself.
Keeping tabs on President Trump and his decision process isn’t as clandestine as it may sound. Kelly, then Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, and Mattis were simply trying to situate themselves in the most prepared manner possible. Consider the recent public blunder regarding the White House’s attempt to dictate new military regulations regarding the banning of transgender enlistees and service members. Though Trump claimed he consulted with his military leaders in his tweets, the Pentagon later said it as “blindsided” by the president and refused to comply. All the while Mattis was out of the country.
(Via Associated Press)