White House chief of staff John Kelly, whose days in the White House were thought to be numbered because of a frosty relationship with President Trump, has agreed to stay on through the 2020 election, according to a report.
Kelly, 68, told his staff Monday — his one-year anniversary in the post — that the president had asked him to remain at his side, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A White House official told the paper that the retired four-star Marine general, who last year told reporters that “it is not the best job I ever had,” agreed to Trump’s request.
“Congratulations to General John Kelly. Today we celebrate his first full year as @WhiteHouse Chief of Staff!” the president tweeted Monday along with a photo of both men beaming.
The image belied a fraught relationship between Trump and Kelly, who has been credited with restoring a semblance of order to the chaotic West Wing — but at the cost of grating on the freewheeling commander-in-chief.
Trump had consulted with advisers about whom he should pick as Kelly’s successor — and considered Nick Ayers, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, and Mick Mulvaney, who heads the Office of Management and Budget.
If Kelly survives until 2020, he would be among the longest-serving White House chiefs of staff in American history.
Andy Card, chief of staff under George W. Bush, served for a little over five years. The longest-serving chief of staff is John Steelman, who spent six years working for Harry Truman.
While serving as secretary of homeland security, Kelly got news of his promotion via tweet from Air Force One.
“I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American,….” Trump announced.
Kelly’s allies have said he took the job out of a sense of duty and he has not exactly hidden his simmering dissatisfaction.
“I’m leaving and I’m not coming back,” Kelly has told his aides, only to show up for work the following day, according to Politico, which reported that he has spent early mornings at his gym.
A Republican close to the White House also referred to Kelly as a “chief of staff in name only,” according to the news outlet.
Kelly did manage to cut off “meeting crashers,” uninvited West Wing aides who used to show up to meetings, Politico reported, but he has not been able to control the president’s habit of using his favorite network, Fox News, to dictate his agenda.
“He comes down for the day, and whatever he saw on ‘Fox & Friends,’ he schedules meetings based on that,” a former White House official told Politico.
“If it’s Iran, it’s ‘Get John Bolton down here!’ … If he’s seen something on TV or [was] talking to Hannity the night before, he’s got lots of flexibility to do whatever he wants to do.”
In April, Kelly shot down an NBC News report that cited White House officials saying he called Trump an “idiot” in front of aides and had portrayed himself as a “savior” who rescued the country from disaster.
“I spend more time with the President than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship,” Kelly said in a statement at the time.
“He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS. I am committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”
With Post wires
