Combat leader Kelly needs to impose discipline

Trump’s chief- of- staff selection enters an unruly culture at White House

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, President Trump’s choice to replace Reince Priebus as chief of staff, is a retired Marine general and combat leader who will now face the challenge of bringing order to a White House staff mired in chaos.

Kelly has the skills to impose needed discipline in the White House, say those who know him.

“Whether or not he will be successful depends on his relationship with the president, and it seems like that relationship is okay,” said Carl Fulford, a retired Marine Corps four- star general. “I don’t think he is going to put up with expletives coming from people who want to see their name in the paper.”

Kelly will need to straighten out a White House riven by public feuds and confused messaging, culminating with an expletiveladen rant against Priebus by Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, posted online Thursday by the The New Yorker magazine.

Kelly, 67, retired from the Marine Corps after more than 40 years of service when Trump offered him the Homeland Security position.

Raised in a working- class family in Boston, Kelly first enlisted in the Marine Corps and later attended Officer Candidates School. He served in a wide range of positions in the Marine Corps, including a stint in the service’s liaison office to the House of Representatives, where he spent time with lawmakers and was exposed to politics and the legislative process.

In 2010, Kelly’s son, 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, 29, was killed in action while leading a platoon of Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

“John Kelly is not looking to feather his nest,” Fulford said. “He is looking to serve the country.”