The Star Malaysia

Now it is Kelly’s turn to lose his job

Yet another Trump associate is gone after the US president announced the White House chief of staff will leave his post on Dec 31. > 20

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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said that chief of staff John Kelly will leave his job by year’s end amid an expected West Wing reshufflin­g reflecting a focus on the 2020 re-election campaign and the challenge of governing with Democrats reclaiming control of the House.

Nick Ayers, Vice-President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, is Trump’s top choice to replace Kelly, and the two have held discussion­s for months about the job, a White House official said. An announceme­nt was expected in the coming days, the president told reporters as he left the White House for the Army-Navy football game in Philadelph­ia.

Kelly had been credited with imposing order on a chaotic West Wing after his arrival in June 2017 from his post as homeland security secretary.

But his iron first also alienated some longtime Trump allies, and he grew increasing­ly isolated, with an increasing­ly diminished role.

Known through the West Wing as “the chief ” or “the general”, the retired Marine Corps four-star general was tapped by Trump via tweet in July 2017 from his perch atop the Homeland Security Department to try to normalise a White House riven by infighting and competing power bases.

“John Kelly will be leaving – I don’t know if I can say retiring – but he’s a great guy,” Trump said. “John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. We’ll be announcing who will be taking John’s place – it might be on an interim basis. I’ll be announcing that over the next day or two, but John will be leaving at the end of the year. ... I appreciate his service very much.”

Kelly had early successes, including ending an open-door Oval Office policy that that had been compared to New York’s Grand Central Station and institutin­g a more rigorous policy process to try to prevent staffers from going directly to Trump.

But those efforts also miffed the president and some of his most influentia­l outside allies, who had grown accustomed to unimpeded access. Kelly’s handling of domestic violence accusation­s against the former White House staff secretary also caused consternat­ion, especially among lower-level White House staffers, who believed Kelly had lied to them about when he found out about the allegation­s.

Trump and Ayers were working out terms under which Ayers would fill the role and the time commitment he would make, the White House official said. Trump wants his next chief of staff to agree to hold the job through the 2020 election.

Ayers, who has young triplets, had long planned to leave the administra­tion at the end of the year, but he has agreed to serve in an interim basis through the spring of 2019.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Word of Kelly’s impending departure comes a day after Trump named his picks for attorney general and ambassador to the United Nations, and two senior aides shifted from the White House to Trump’s campaign. — AP

 ?? — Reuters ?? Incoming and outgoing: Ayers (left) and Kelly listening as Trump holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.
— Reuters Incoming and outgoing: Ayers (left) and Kelly listening as Trump holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.

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