Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

How to Know If John Kelly Is Really in Charge

The new White House chief of staff wasted no time in firing Scaramucci. But that was the easy part.

August 1, 2017 at 1:24 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Chief, meet Staff.
Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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The blunt truth is that all of this has been perfectly predictable from Day One. Donald Trump has been running the White House the way Jimmy Carter did for almost his entire presidency, and Bill Clinton did for his first several months. It just doesn't work, even with an engaged and skilled politician (that is, Clinton) in the Oval Office. With an amateur? Chaos.

John Kelly, who served for a long time as a general and a short time as President Trump's homeland security secretary, probably isn't the best fit for White House chief of staff. But he has two advantages over Reince Priebus: extensive experience working in government and the power to do his new job properly. So perhaps he'll turn out to be better at the job.