General Kelly acts quickly to clean up image of White House.
Anthony Scaramucci has only been on the job for a matter of days, but has already been shown the door.
The former White House Communications Director joined the administration just over a week ago, but new Chief of Staff, retired General John Kelly requested that Scaramucci be ousted, and President Trump obliged. For an administration in chaos, the most recent firing might actually be a sign of much needed stability, and proof that General Kelly will bring a much needed culture change to the White House.
The door may remain open for Scaramucci to join the administration in another capacity, but given the vitriol the former Wall Street big-shot stirred up in just a matter of days, that seems unlikely. Scaramucci’s short tenure also coincided with perhaps the roughest week for the young Trump administration.
Immediately after Scaramucci was hired, Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned. Spicer was already in hot water with President Trump, and it became apparent that he’d be lower in the pecking order than Scaramucci. That was too much for Spicer. Just a few short days later, on Thursday, the former Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus also tendered his resignation. Priebus was one of the few Republican Party establishment insiders with a high-level position within the administration.
On Friday, Trump announced the move and quickly replaced the GOP stalwart with General John Kelly.
So who is General John Kelly?
Kelly was one of the first additions to the Trump White House, originally tapped to run the Department of Homeland Security. The General had retired from the Armed Forces just eight months earlier, putting an end to a distinguished military career that included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as several high profile leadership posts. His son, Robert Michael Kelly, was killed in combat in Afghanistan back in 2010.
Kelly says that he joined the White House after asking his wife what he should do. She reminded him that the Kelly family is a “ a family of service to the nation. And if they think they need you, then you’ve got to do it.'” Kelly was confirmed by the Senate with an overwhelming number of both Democrats and Republicans supporting him.
Administration aides are already reporting an increased sense of calm and stability within the White House. Scaramucci, on the other hand, had managed to stir up near-anarchy during his extremely brief tenure. Most infamously, in a profanity-laced tirade to a New Yorker journalist, Scaramucci threatened to fire the entire Communications staff, called Chief of Staff Reince “a f**king paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” and claimed “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c*ck.”
For a Communications Director, Scaramucci seemed pretty bad at communicating, and filtering which thoughts should be made publicly, and which should be kept privately.
Interestingly, Scaramucci was initially a vocal critic of Donald Trump early on in the Presidential race. Back in 2015, Scaramucci called Trump a “hack” and challenged him to “bring it.” He also claimed that Trump’s campaign would “implode”, but as it became obvious that Trump was a serious contender, Scaramucci changed his tune and emerged as a top Trump donor and surrogate.
That surrogacy has likely come to an end. Scaramucci has already earned a reputation for his hot temper, and his rant to the New Yorker has damaged the White House’s image. General Kelly seems to have had enough of that, and he convinced Trump to move on as well. For the sake of the nation, hopefully General Kelly can provide the White House with some much needed calm and focus.
