Deck Chairs Rearranged on SS Trumptanic — Just in Time for Iceberg
It looks like Donald J. Trump’s love affair with “my generals” is over.
Following months of speculation, several news organizations report that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will soon be leaving>
CNN:
Seventeen months in, Kelly and President Donald Trump have reached a stalemate in their relationship and it is no longer seen as tenable by either party. Though Trump asked Kelly over the summer to stay on as chief of staff for two more years, the two have stopped speaking in recent days.
Trump is actively discussing a replacement plan, though a person involved in the process said nothing is final right now and ultimately nothing is final until Trump announces it.
NBC:
Among the leading candidates to replace him is Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers.
There is also the possibility that Trump might elect to go the JFK route and not have a chief of staff.
As with most things associated with the alleged millionaire real estate mogul, Kelly’s tenure has been surrounded by drama and friction. In August, WaPo reported on Kelly’s evaporating influence in the Oval Office. In October, news of an alleged physical altercation between Kelly and Trump surrogate Corey Lewandowski leaked to the media, and only last month, Kelly had a clash with Melania Trump that made headlines.
Also breaking this morning: Trump wants an advocate of mass incarceration and fellow Hillary-smearing conspirawhacko as his new Attorney General:
President Donald Trump said on Friday he had chosen former U.S. Attorney General William Barr to once again lead the Justice Department, a role that would put him in charge of the federal probe into Russian election interference.
If confirmed by the Senate, Barr would take over from Matthew Whitaker, who has been serving in an acting capacity since Trump forced out Jeffrey Sessions a month ago. Whitaker had been Sessions’ chief of staff.
Barr was “my first choice from day one,” and “a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man,” Trump said, speaking to reporters outside the White House.
Barr, a lawyer who was previously attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under the late President George H.W. Bush, has defended Trump’s controversial decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 when Comey was leading the Russia probe.
To top it all off, who could be a better choice for America’s ambassador to the UN than a former FOX Newsmodel?
Donald Trump has decided to name the state department spokeswoman and former Fox News anchor Heather Nauert as the ambassador to the United Nations, a source familiar with his decision told Reuters.
Trump will send a tweet on Friday morning about choosing Nauert to replace the outgoing UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation in October, Fox News reported, citing multiple sources.
Trump’s decision was first reported by Bloomberg News.…
Nauert, whose nomination would require Senate confirmation, is a former Fox News Channel correspondent and anchor. She does not have prior political or policy-making experience.
Nice job with the deck chairs, Donald!
UPDATE: Guardian reports that
John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and is expected to quit in the coming days, CNN reported on Friday.
Kelly “responded to a narrow set of questions” in recent months related to potential obstruction of justice, the TV network said, citing three sources. This was after White House lawyers initially objected to Mueller’s request to do the interview earlier in the summer.
Sorry, Donald, you don’t get a Roy Cohn.