Kelly should be good in this position, he is exactly what Trump needs.
If he’s going to be serious, he oughta be shadowing Trump and cut everybody else off, including Kushner and Ivanka.
I have no doubt at all that he will snap Little Tony’s neck the first chance he gets and will tell Little Tony so.
You are right in that he is not a civilian politico. I’m sure he’s a HUGE hardass ahshole, he’s already shown on the Sunday programs that he’s willing to lie straight up on a Conway scale. He’d be perfect in one of Ben Affleck’s Boston-themed movies, could play the good guy or the bad guy.
If you don’t understand politics, the chief of staff position is a terrible one. I’ve seen no evidence Kelly understands politics. Trump keeps going for the wrong types of people to fill these roles.
Right now what Trump needs is at least a semblance of order. It may not be what he WANTS, but it’s what he NEEDS. Kelly can let Trump watch TV all day or give him a fidget spinner to play with to keep him occupied.
Kelly is at least capable of blocking the door and telling everybody else to STFU.
Does the Mooch report to Kelly? Because he didn’t report to Priebus.
In fact, I understand the Trump White House is organized differently than the norm, which was to have everyone (or almost everyone) report through the CoS. But Trump has a lot of people reporting directly to him – Ivanka, Kushner (I always want to call him Ashton instead of Jared), Kellyanne, (probably) Mooch, and maybe one or two others I can’t think of.
This got me wondering how good a businessman he actually was (is?). Just about every major organization I can think of has only a handful report directly to the CEO. In fact, in a number of cases, there’s really one one exec that reports directly – the COO. Other times, it’s three to five. (If just three, they tend to be Top Finance & Admin, Top Marketing & Sales and Top Operations.) It’s just not efficient to have a lot of people reporting.
And of course in addition to the WH staff the pres has a lot of other people reporting to him, in positions that for a number of reasons can’t realistically report through someone else.
I know Trumpistas are going to say, “Of course, he’s a good businessman! He’s made a lot of money.”
But making a lot of money by itself is not that great a measure of how good a CEO you are. The real question is how much you have made in comparison to CEOs at similar companies. So a CEO’s company showed $100 million in EBITA. A lot of money, indeed. But if CEOs in the same industry with similar assets/revenues/whatever made $200 million, the $100 million CEO is a lousy businessman.
given the extreme slanderous accusations by Scarimucci, I am surprised how calmly and professionally R.P. handled the situation. He even reinforced his support of Thrump and had not one bad thing to say about anyone. I recall McCain not having a public reaction to Thrump’s dissing of his POW history. It must be true, then, that revenge is a dish best served cold. Two years later, McCain found himself in a position to stick to Thrump, and he did. I suspect, somehow, Priebus will find some way to get similar dignified revenge.
Anny: “And of course in addition to the WH staff the pres has a lot of other people reporting to him, in positions that for a number of reasons can’t realistically report through someone else”
I would add all the cabinet position to that list, but I don’t think that the fact they are a direct report allows them to pick up the phone and give Thrump a call whenever they please, or to ask for any sort of audience without good cause. I heard a former CoS explain it this way…regards access, if you ‘NEED’ to see the man, knock on the door. If you ‘WANT’ to see him, we’ll let you know when he has the time. If the ‘NEED’ wasn’t serious, don’t call us, we’ll call you in future.
Thrump knows he is supposed to ‘delegate’. Just like in his business life, delegation goes to people who are loyal to him and who don’t try to do the job the way they want to, but, rather, the way Thrump tells them to. This sort of limits his choices, pretty much to those folks who jumped on his campaign bandwagon, and those who by the nature of their previous employment as military officers are inclined to follow the chain of command without question. That pool may be getting shallow. Anyone whose loyalty first is to the Constitution is a questionable hire, even some who say they are Christians first, Americans second and Republicans third. I suspect Pence is not as close a confidant as it might first appear, for example.
That’s the thing. If Spicer or Priebus have fit (i.e. act like Trump) on the way out, they damage their credibility when the day comes that they can strike back, assuming they do want to. They would look like a bitter former employee out for revenge with nothing but lies and slander. Now, if they say something they are more believable. Not to the Trump base of course, Trump will call them lying losers and they’ll buy it, but to independents and non-Trump diehards it will be more convincing.
I agree with you that it’s different from the business world. DJT doesn’t seem to have figured that out yet. I was addressing this comment of yours in a previous post:
To continue with the current post:
I agree. He doesn’t have one ounce of discipline. Weeks at a time? More like hours. As for his fate, he’s doomed. *Après *Trump, le déluge. I just hope there’s something left for the rest of us…
Agreed. I didn’t understand why Trump hired him as CoS in the first place. He did not seem like a good fit for Trump at all. I know nothing about this Kelly guy, so I guess we’ll see.
Yes. It was to show that Trump was going to be a “grown up” and pivot to be presidential. That he was going to work with the majorities in the house and senate to get things done. And they fell for it.
Could be. But still a stupid reason to give someone that job. Set them up as SecAg or something, but CoS is such a critical post and one where you are constantly interacting with each other. You need someone who is 110% on your side in that post. We’re talking about the Hand of the King here!