John Kelly: Who is Trump's new Chief of Staff?

Donald Trump has turned to John Kelly, a four-star Marine general, to bring order to a shambolic White House staffed with his relatives, multi-millionaire advisers and - until recently - a communications director who referred to Kelly predecessor as a "f***ing paranoid schizophrenic".

The general's first job was to fire Anthony 'The Mooch' Scaramucci, the loose-lipped communications director who reported directly to the President for 11 memorable days.

The 67-year-old must now turn his attention to rehabilitating the image of a White House currently entangled in a public relations nightmare.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

"Ousting a communications director who had alienated most of his colleagues was one thing," says Time magazine. "But maintaining discipline within the squabbling staff—a melange of loyal aides, party operatives, policy wonks, and the President’s own kin—will be an entirely different challenge."

Kelly takes on the role at "a critical juncture", says the New York Times, with the Republican legislative agenda in tatters and geopolitical tensions with China, Russia and North Korea all requiring a tactful, sensitive and disciplined response.

"But for a day, at least, cautious optimism reigned at the White House," says Time.

"Right now everyone is saying the right things,” a senior White House official told the magazine, "the question is whether they follow through."

Five fast facts about General John Kelly, the new White House Chief of Staff:

1. He is the first former general to occupy the chief of staff post since Alexander Haig, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate crisis. Trump reportedly has an "affinity" for generals, the Times reports, believing they can get the job done.

2. Kelly was so angry with President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey that he called Comey to say he was considering resigning as secretary of homeland security, CNN reports, citing two sources said to be familiar with the conversation. Comey urged Kelly not to resign, one of the sources said.

3. As Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security, Kelly was the man in charge of overseeing the President's controversial campaign promise to build a border wall with Mexico as part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigration.

4. Despite his starring role in overseeing one of the President's most divisive policies, those who have worked with Kelly say the general is far from a close-minded Trump fanatic. Evelyn Farkas, a senior Pentagon official in the Obama administration, told the Financial Times the general had a "good heart and… good judgment”. She added: "He prides himself on being non-ideological, so he approaches President Trump through that prism."

5. Kelly has an unusually personal investment in the War on Terror. His son Robert, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, aged 29 - making Kelly the highest ranking US military officer to lose a child in the conflict, says the Times. His other son, John Jr, is a Marine major.