Priebus pushed out after rocky tenure

President appoints Gen. John Kelly as White House chief of staff.

WASHINGTON — Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff who failed to impose order on a chaos-wracked West Wing, was pushed out Friday after a stormy six-month tenure, and President Donald Trump replaced him with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general.

Trump announced Kelly’s appointment on Twitter shortly before 5 p.m. and only afterward sent out another message thanking Priebus for his service. “We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!” Trump wrote.

Priebus’ ouster was the latest convulsion in a White House that has been whipsawed by feuds and political setbacks in recent days. The president became convinced that Priebus was not strong enough to run the White House operation and that he needed a general to take charge. Kelly, who has demonstrated strong leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, had become a favorite of Trump’s.

Just hours earlier, the presi-

dent had heaped praise on Kelly at an event on Long Island, N.Y., talking about the battle against the violent MS-13 gang.

“I want to congratulate John Kelly, who has done an incredible job of secretary of homeland security,” the president said. “One of our real stars. Truly one of our stars. John Kelly is one of our great stars.”

But some advisers to Trump were opposed to the choice, arguing that Kelly did not have the political background for the job. “The president needs someone who understands the Trump constituency as his chief of staff, someone who has both administrative skills and political savvy,” Roger Stone, Trump’s off-and-on adviser, said, anticipating Kelly’s selection before the announcement was made.

Priebus, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, lost his job just hours after the president’s signature drive to repeal his predecessor’s health care program collapsed on the Senate floor and a day after an ugly feud with the new communications director erupted in a public airing of the deep animosities plaguing the White House.

Appearing Friday night on CNN, Priebus said he had offered Trump his resignation on Thursday.

“The President wanted to go in a different direction,” he said.

He said he will work with Kelly on the transition, calling him a “brilliant pick” and pledging there will be no “ill will feelings.”

“I’m always going to be a Trump fan,” the network quoted him as saying.

Priebus represented a more conventional breed of senior White House figure, chosen by the president despite a career defined by the calculations of traditional Republican Party politics, which Trump regards as part of “the swamp” he was elected to drain.

A native of Kenosha, Wis., Priebus rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to be his state’s chairman, and becoming an effective operator within the national party, which he was chosen to lead in 2011. One of his top allies was a fellow Republican from Wisconsin, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who publicly defended Priebus on Thursday when no one in the White House would.

Gen. John Kelly