Don dumps Reince as chief of staff; Kelly in
“Survivor: White House” claimed its latest victim Friday when President Trump dropped a bombshell on Twitter that he was replacing embattled Chief of Staff Reince Priebus with Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly.
“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 . . . and a Greatt Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration,” Trump said in two tweets at about 4:50 p.m.
A Trump confidant said thee president had lost confidence in Priebus, privately questioning his effectiveness after major legisla-tive efforts, including the ObamaCare repeal, collapsed in Congress.
Priebus, who had been in the president’s doghouse for months, said he quit Thursday.
“I resigned privately yesterday,” Priebus confirmed to The Wall Street Journal.
During an interview after the news broke, Priebus said he would continue to be a “strong supporter” of Trump.
“The president has the right to hit the reset button and I support him,” Priebus told CNN.
“The president has the best political instincts and intuitively determined that it was time to do something differently.”
Having named Kelly via Twitter, Trump went on to praise Priebus in a third tweet.
“I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!” the president wrote.
Priebus’ exit came after White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci — whose appointment Priebus tried in vain to block — in a profanity-laced interview accused him of leaking to reporters.
“Reince is a f--kng paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci told The New Yorker Wednesday night.
Last Friday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer, a close Priebus ally, announced his resignation after Scaramucci came aboard.
In an odd final day, Priebus accompanied the president to Long Island aboard Air Force One for a speech in which Trump railed against street gangs.
Rep. Peter King (R-LI), who was on the flight, said there was no sign of the stunning announcement to come, the most dramatic shakeup yet in a West Wing beset by infighting.
“We didn’t even know it. We were sitting right across from him and he kept a poker face,” the congressman said.
King said the president told him as they were about to get off that he was going to name Kelly his chief of staff.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Priebus would leave at once and Kelly would take over Monday.
Priebus, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, lasted six months in the pressure cooker that is Trump’s White House.
But his problems began early on when he clashed with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, adviser Steve Bannon and the president himself over a range of issues.
Kelly, a retired Marine general, was put in charge of homeland security from Day 1 of Trump’s presidency.
Priebus’ exit was the latest of what could be a string of Trump administration departures.
In addition to Spicer’s resignation, Michael Short of the communications shop quit before Scaramucci could fire him.