Generals take command of White House
Trump places his trust in Mattis, McMaster, Kelly amid chaos in West Wing
When White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney was asked why President Donald Trump had appointed former Marine officer John Kelly as chief of staff, Mulvaney had a simple explanation. “You know that he enjoys working with generals,” he said.
Within this rambunctious, idiosyncratic presidency, a small but growing group of former military leaders appear almost the only ones able to operate, survive and even thrive in the Trump administration. The President appears to be increasingly placing his trust in their discipline, loyalty and ability to influence and control those in his chain of command.
A triumvirate of America’s most respected generals — former Marine James Mattis as secretary of defence, serving Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as national security advisor and former homeland security chief Kelly — now sit at the political heart of the administration. With Kelly running the day-to-day operations of the White House since replacing former Republican chairman Reince Preibus, their influence may increasingly reach well beyond foreign and security policy into national politics.
The hope of many in and outside government is that the commanders provide a much-needed dose of sanity and experience to an administration that badly needs both. Critics, however, accuse them of risking politicising the armed services and lending credibility to a presidency that hasn’t earned it.
The truth may be that the military officers are almost the only figures Trump trusts, respects or can be reliably expected to listen to.
America’s military leadership has, of course, been a fixture in the nation’s broader domestic politics since the days of George Washington and the Revolutionary War. World War Two commander Dwight D. Eisenhower and Civil War military supremo Ulysses S. Grant were the last two to make it to the Oval Office. Never in recent history, however, have there been quite so many armed forces figures swirling around the top slots of power.