It sure doesn't sound like White House Chief of Staff John Kelly misses his old job, especially not working with President Trump's family.
When asked in a new interview with Bloomberg if it was "complicated" to have Trump's family working in government while he was chief of staff, Kelly responded that "they're an influence that has to be dealt with." He quickly clarified that he's "by no means" talking about first lady Melania Trump.
Although he didn't specifically name them, Kelly was alluding to senior adviser Jared Kushner and adviser Ivanka Trump, whose fraught relationship with Kelly has been reported. In fact, Trump's daughter and son-in-law reportedly lobbied for Kelly to be replaced, and Kelly was "furious" at them when he departed the administration, The New York Times reports.
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Asked to describe what it was like working in the White House, Kelly said that being chief of staff was "very, very hard" and "meaningful" but "not very enjoyable," suggesting part of that is due to the struggle of "bringing together" an entire White House staff.
Although Kelly has offered some criticism of Trump since leaving the White House, in this interview, he defended the president's controversial 2017 Charlottesville comments, saying Trump was simply trying to say there were "good people in the crowd" but "whether that was articulated properly, I don’t know."
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