John Kelly is fine, you guys. Everything is great. Everything is awesome.
Sure, he had to leave a job he loved — being secretary of the Department of Homeland Security — to corral the apparent chaos in the White House as President Trump's chief of staff. He had to fire Anthony Scaramucci — "like a gentleman," of course — and Stephen Bannon and probably wants to fire Jared Kushner, whose security clearance he just downgraded. His closest West Wing confidante, the former staff secretary Rob Porter, was just dismissed after his two ex-wives made public their allegations of abuse at his hand — a dismissal Kelly is widely seen as having bungled spectacularly.
That might be why Kelly joked Thursday that being Trump's chief of staff is a literal cosmic punishment:
Kelly made the comments at an event commemorating DHS's 15th anniversary. "I miss every one of you," he told the audience of assembled department staffers. "Every day."