Chief of staff gets short end of stick

President ‘tired of being told no,’ does not share decisions

WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, White House chief of staff John Kelly wasn’t on the line.

When Trump tapped John Bolton to be his next national security adviser, Kelly wasn’t in the room.

And when Trump spent a Mar-a-Lago weekend stewing over immigration and trade, Kelly wasn’t in sight.

Kelly, once empowered to bring order to a turbulent West Wing, has receded from view, his clout diminished, his word less trusted by staff and his guidance less tolerated by an increasingly go-it-alone president.

Emboldened in his job, Trump has rebelled against Kelly’s restrictions and mused about doing away with the chief of staff post.

It’s all leading White House staffers and Trump allies to believe that Kelly is working on borrowed time.

In recent weeks, Trump has governed at breakneck pace, ousting aides and issuing policy announcements on Twitter, recreating the helter-skelter feel of his first months in office.

Kelly’s allies maintain his retreat is strategic. They suggest that the belief that Kelly was Trump’s savior was an overstated idea all along and that the chief of staff is content to loosen the reins and allow an increasingly comfortable president to govern from his gut.

But those close to the president say that Trump has expressed fatigue at Kelly’s attempts to shackle him and that while Trump is not ready to fire Kelly, he has begun gradually freezing out his top aide.

Trump recently told one confidant that he was “tired of being told no” by Kelly and has instead chosen to simply not tell Kelly things at all, according to a person not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In Trump’s West Wing, once the rumors begin that an aide’s exit is forthcoming, the “stink” on that staffer never leaves, according to one of the nearly dozen White House aides, former administration officials and outside advisers who spoke to The Associated Press under the same conditions.

As Kelly’s public profile and behind-the-scenes influence has faded, speculation has risen that chaos could return.

“It’s not tenable for Kelly to remain in this position so weakened,” said Chris Whipple, author of “Gatekeepers,” a history of White House chiefs of staff. “More than any of his predecessors, Donald Trump needs an empowered chief of staff to tell him what he does not want to hear.”

Kelly was a fixture at the president’s side, but Trump has cut him out of a number of important decisions.

For months, Kelly made it a practice to listen in to many of the president’s calls, particularly with world leaders. While he is still on the line for some of those conversations, Kelly was not part of the call Trump made to Putin last month from the White House residence during which Trump ignored advice against congratulating the Russian president on his re-election.

Although Kelly had agitated for the removal of outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, he counseled Trump against hiring Bolton, a neo-conservative media commentator.

Trump did it anyway, offering the job to Bolton in a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office and telling his chief of staff about it later.

As Trump spent the Easter weekend at his Florida resort and tweeted about his tariffs plan, Kelly was out of state, though the men did consult by phone.

The president also has cast aside the constraints the retired four-star Marine general tried to place on Trump about whom he could see and speak to.

Those restrictions led shunned advisers to try to undermine Kelly in the press and with Trump.

Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had been barred from the White House, only to return when Kelly was overruled by Trump, according to four White House aides and outside advisers.

Kelly also has clashed with Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who had his security clearance downgraded after a policy change written by the chief of staff.

Some White House aides contend that Kelly has been intentionally giving Trump more leeway to be himself and that Kelly recognizes that’s what Trump wants.

But allies acknowledged Kelly’s receding power and said he’s trying to keep his head down and focus on policy, such as the plan to mobilize the National Guard along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Kelly, who took the job last July, had previously told confidants he hoped to be on the job for a year.

One person familiar with his thinking said the chief of staff recently voiced doubt he would make it that far.

YURI GRIPAS/BLOOMBERG A source says chief of staff John Kelly doubts he will see his one-year job anniversary.