John Kelly -- Bringing Order to the West Wing?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump names budget director Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff"

Spoiler

President Trump on Friday named Mick Mulvaney, currently the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the White House chief of staff in an acting capacity.

Mulvaney replaces John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general who Trump ousted as chief of staff last week. The appointment caps Trump’s extraordinary week-long public search for his third chief of staff in two years.

“I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration.”

Trump added, “I look forward to working with him in this new capacity as we continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! John will be staying until the end of the year. He is a GREAT PATRIOT and I want to personally thank him for his service!”

Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, is one of the more ideologically conservative members of Trump’s Cabinet. He was elected to the House in 2010 as a member of the tea party movement and was known for his professed support of fiscal conservatism.

Mulvaney, 51, has held several hats in the Trump administration. He has served as budget director since the beginning, but also held the role of acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through much of the past year.

Trump’s selection of Mulvaney comes after several candidates announced publicly that they were not interested in the position. After meeting with Trump for more than one hour at the White House residence on Thursday, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said Friday that he had taken himself out of consideration.

Nick Ayers, chief of staff to Vice President Pence, was offered the job by Trump last weekend but declined.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Acting? So Mulvaney doesn't really want the job either.

i'm so sad it's not Jared

[AnywhereButHere]

So, Mulvaney drew the short straw? What do you want to bet there was a group of republicans in a room trying to figure out which one of them has enough cash in reserve for the lawyers they’ll need to hire. “Sorry Mick. Just take one for the team. Don’t worry. You’ll be resigned within the year. Just keep an eye on the Tweets for the exact date.”

[Howl]

Mulvaney will keep his job as head of Management and Budget while working full time as Chief of Staff.  It's that Jared multi-tasking gig apparently.  

[AmazonGrace]

 Dozens of people want this job

[fraurosena]

 

[Cartmann99]

I know it would be a complete trainwreck, but Scaramucci is at least crazy enough to want the CoS job. I really thought his devotion might sway Trump to pick him.

[onekidanddone]

44 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I know it would be a complete trainwreck, but Scaramucci is at least crazy enough to want the CoS job. I really thought his devotion might sway Trump to pick him.

It would be amusing I agree, but Scary Moochie is so out there he might steal the spotlight off Trump

[Howl]

Quote

Trump's next chief of staff Mick Mulvaney called him a "terrible human being" just before he was elected president.

Heh, wonder how many Scaramuccis he'll be on the job?  

 

42 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I know it would be a complete trainwreck, but Scaramucci is at least crazy enough to want the CoS job. I really thought his devotion might sway Trump to pick him.

This would have been relentlessly entertaining.  I'm sorry he didn't get the job!  But then, it's not over 'til it's over.  The Mooch could have another chance to jump INTO the dumpster fire down the road, once Mick flames out and goes back to OMB or heads home to "spend more time with his family."

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Howl]

John Kelly's last day as WH Chief of Staff  is Wednesday. Within a few days of officially putting the WH in the rear view mirror, Kelly did a 2-hour phone interview with the LA Times, rather than waiting until he officially left, which is interesting in itself.  Yes, he's doing damage control with a side dish of self hagiography by getting his version of events out before he even leaves.  

Before I get going,  yes, I do agree with the criticisms about Kelly, based on the many  ghastly missteps he made that revealed mean streaks and racist and misogynist tendencies.  However, I do strongly agree with this quote from the article

Quote

In the phone interview Friday, Kelly defended his rocky tenure, arguing that it is best measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side....Kelly’s supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small. They credit him, in part, for persuading Trump not to pull U.S. forces out of South Korea, or withdraw from NATO, as he had threatened.

Full text here: Outgoing White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly defends his rocky tenure.

I carefully noted Kelly's phrasing: 

Quote

Kelly said he made sure that Trump had access to multiple streams of detailed information before he made a decision — even if the president says he often relies on his gut, rather than U.S. intelligence.

“It’s never been: The president just wants to make a decision based on no knowledge and ignorance,” Kelly said. “You may not like his decision, but at least he was fully informed on the impact.”

So yeah, that's some "I did my fucking job" shit with a dash of CYA. 

SecDef Mattis and Kelly are peers and friends, same age, Marine Corps 4-star generals with parallel professional trajectories, who have risen to top levels in the Trump administration; both are leaving the Trumpster fire within two days of each other.  

As things went south, Mattis had the relative luxury of being able to keep a very low profile and continue to go about his business at DoD, travelling to cement existing US alliances and calm nerves internationally and put out brush fires and various conflagrations + create some terrible optics with MBS (no smoking gun!) and troops at the border. 

Kelly was dealing with Trump and relentless West Wing palace intrigue on an hourly basis.  As Kelly was being marginalized, who the hell knows what he was doing -- probably lying awake at night watching blood dripping out of the ceiling.  There is no amount of Ambien that can address blood dripping out of the ceiling.  

I do think (up until November) that both of them were able to talk Trump out of some truly idiotic, damaging, dangerous shit or at least delay it.  

And yes, I'm now of the belief that Trump is an actual or de facto Russian asset, a loose cannon who fetishizes authoritarians and a cornered narcissist poised to do terrifying and potentially irreversible damage to our foreign policy and domestic economy, as in, "Hold my phone and watch this!" 

It will be interesting to see if both Mattis and Kelly are called for House hearings.  I doubt Mattis will be sitting for long, tell-all interviews with the media; it doesn't seem to be his style.  If called to House hearings, I think he'll be totally professional and ruthless in telling the truth. 

Edited December 30, 2018 by Howl

[GreyhoundFan]

You couldn't make this up: "John F. Kelly joins board of contractor running shelters for migrants"

Spoiler

Former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly has joined the board of Caliburn International, the parent organization of the company that runs the largest facility housing migrant children in the United States.

Kelly was President Trump’s chief of staff from mid-2017 through 2018, when the administration’s zero-tolerance policy was implemented at the U.S.-Mexico border. That led to thousands of Central American migrant children being separated from their parents and housed in facilities run by government contractors.

A Caliburn subsidiary, Comprehensive Health Services, runs a “temporary influx care facility” for migrant children in Homestead, Fla., under contract with the federal government. It is the only for-profit company operating such shelters. CBS first reported Kelly’s appointment to the Caliburn board.

“With four decades of military and humanitarian leadership, in-depth understanding of international affairs and knowledge of current economic drivers around the world, General Kelly is a strong strategic addition to our team,” Caliburn chief executive James Van Dusen said in a news release Friday.

Kelly, a retired four-star general, joined the Trump administration as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for the first half of 2017. In that role, Kelly said he considered family separations as a way to deter mass migration to the United States. The policy was implemented once Kelly joined the White House team. A federal judge has ordered the government to reunite more than 2,700 separated children with their families.

Many of the Central American migrants detained at the border are minors crossing without parents or guardians. According to Customs and Border Protection data, authorities encountered 22,173 unaccompanied minors at the border from January through March.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees housing for unaccompanied minors detained at the border, has been using the Homestead facility to cope with a surge of migrant children in need of temporary housing. Approximately 2,000 immigrant minors were residing in Homestead as of March 30, according to an HHS fact sheet, and bed capacity is being expanded from 2,350 to 3,200.

As CBS reported, “Located on several acres of federal land adjacent to an Air Reserve Base, the facility is the nation’s only site not subject to routine inspections by state child welfare experts.”

The health department’s Office of Inspector General is scrutinizing Homestead and other facilities because of reports of sexual abuse at government-funded shelters for immigrant minors. “We are deeply concerned that children in these large shelters and unlicensed facilities, such as the one in Homestead, Florida, are not adequately shielded from sexual violence,” Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to the inspector general in a letter dated Feb. 28.

According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “The Florida Department of Children and Families has investigated sexual-abuse claims at the [Homestead] facility, including two allegations that state records say involved staff and legal guardians caring for migrant children. Investigators later said there were no ‘indicators’ of abuse, but some lawmakers remain concerned.”

When the Obama administration used the Homestead facility to house immigrant minors, one worker was sentenced to prison in 2017 “for attempting to coerce and entice an unaccompanied alien minor to engage in illicit sexual activity,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in South Florida.

Before joining the Trump administration, Kelly sat on the board of advisers for DC Capital Partners, a private equity firm that owns Caliburn. An executive order signed by Trump bars Kelly from lobbying activities for five years after his government service, but Kelly is free to take jobs in the private sector.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, criticized Kelly for joining the company’s board. “John Kelly pushed for family separation while in the White House,” Warren tweeted. “Now he’ll profit off of separating mamas from their babies. It’s immoral, and under my plan to #EndCorruptionNow it would be illegal for someone like Kelly to do this.”

Kelly did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

A Caliburn spokeswoman confirmed Kelly’s appointment. The government contractor also runs shelter facilities in Texas. In a 2018 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company identified “border enforcement and immigration policy” as a growth opportunity.

 

[Howl]

John Kelly was photographed a few weeks ago in Florida visiting a shelter run by that company that houses unaccompanied minor migrant children.   IIRC, that Florida shelter rakes in 25 million a day or a week -- some staggering amount of money.   

Edited May 6, 2019 by Howl

[fraurosena]

First he locks them up, now he's making money off of them. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"John Kelly says he warned Trump he’d be impeached if he hired a ‘yes man’ as chief of staff to replace him"

Spoiler

John Kelly, former chief of staff to President Trump, said Saturday he warned the president before he left the White House not to replace him with a “yes man” because it would lead to Trump’s impeachment.

Kelly also said he believed he could have prevented the current impeachment inquiry against Trump if he had stayed in the job. Kelly said the inquiry could have been avoided if president had surrounded himself with people who could rein in his worst instincts.

His candid remarks, made during an interview at a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner, suggests he blames acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others in the West Wing for not doing more to stop Trump’s behavior.

“Someone has got to be a guide that tells [the president] that you either have the authority or you don’t, or Mr. President, don’t do it,” Kelly told the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. “Don’t hire someone that will just nod and say, ‘That’s a great idea Mr. President.’ Because you will be impeached.”

The House Democrats are in the midst of an impeachment inquiry involving Trump’s request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential contender, and his son Hunter Biden.

Kelly, a retired four-star Marine, has likened his time in the White House to wrestling with a bear every day, according to a person who spoke to him. The person asked not to be identified to speak candidly.

Kelly and Trump were barely on speaking terms when the former chief of staff left -- after 18 months of sometimes titanic clashes.

In one of their final conversations, according to a person briefed on the topic, Trump asked Kelly not to write a book -- and Kelly agreed, at least until Trump was out of office.

During the interview Saturday, Kelly expressed some regret about leaving.

“That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving,” Kelly said. “It pains me to see what’s going on because I believe if I was still there or someone like me was there, he would not be kind of, all over the place.”

Mulvaney has taken the different approach of letting “Trump be Trump.” The acting chief of staff regularly leaves the West Wing to visit his home in South Carolina, or golf, or attend political events, according to current and former aides.

But Kelly had his own controversial episodes in the White House, defending the administration’s family separation policy, making false statements about a U.S. congresswoman and mishandling allegations against Rob Porter, the former staff secretary.

During a second panel discussion, Kelly called Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria a “catastrophically bad idea.”

“It didn’t happen while I was there — and a couple of other people recently left the administration and then he went with his instinct,” Kelly said.

 

[fraurosena]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"John Kelly says he warned Trump he’d be impeached if he hired a ‘yes man’ as chief of staff to replace him"

  Hide contents

John Kelly, former chief of staff to President Trump, said Saturday he warned the president before he left the White House not to replace him with a “yes man” because it would lead to Trump’s impeachment.

Kelly also said he believed he could have prevented the current impeachment inquiry against Trump if he had stayed in the job. Kelly said the inquiry could have been avoided if president had surrounded himself with people who could rein in his worst instincts.

His candid remarks, made during an interview at a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner, suggests he blames acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others in the West Wing for not doing more to stop Trump’s behavior.

“Someone has got to be a guide that tells [the president] that you either have the authority or you don’t, or Mr. President, don’t do it,” Kelly told the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. “Don’t hire someone that will just nod and say, ‘That’s a great idea Mr. President.’ Because you will be impeached.”

The House Democrats are in the midst of an impeachment inquiry involving Trump’s request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential contender, and his son Hunter Biden.

Kelly, a retired four-star Marine, has likened his time in the White House to wrestling with a bear every day, according to a person who spoke to him. The person asked not to be identified to speak candidly.

Kelly and Trump were barely on speaking terms when the former chief of staff left -- after 18 months of sometimes titanic clashes.

In one of their final conversations, according to a person briefed on the topic, Trump asked Kelly not to write a book -- and Kelly agreed, at least until Trump was out of office.

During the interview Saturday, Kelly expressed some regret about leaving.

“That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving,” Kelly said. “It pains me to see what’s going on because I believe if I was still there or someone like me was there, he would not be kind of, all over the place.”

Mulvaney has taken the different approach of letting “Trump be Trump.” The acting chief of staff regularly leaves the West Wing to visit his home in South Carolina, or golf, or attend political events, according to current and former aides.

But Kelly had his own controversial episodes in the White House, defending the administration’s family separation policy, making false statements about a U.S. congresswoman and mishandling allegations against Rob Porter, the former staff secretary.

During a second panel discussion, Kelly called Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria a “catastrophically bad idea.”

“It didn’t happen while I was there — and a couple of other people recently left the administration and then he went with his instinct,” Kelly said.

 

John Kelly can go and get stuffed. He was one of the enablers.