Kara S Alaimo, Columnist

Saying ‘You’re Fired’ Too Often Is Bad for a Presidency

Record-setting turnover like the departure of chief of staff John Kelly does not bode well for the Trump administration.

December 10, 2018 at 3:30 PM UTC

By Kara S Alaimo

Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is the author of “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — and How We Can Take It Back.”

John Kelly meant business.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

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President Donald Trump said Saturday that his chief of staff, John Kelly, would step down by the end of the year.

Kelly’s departure will add to records the Trump administration has already set for turnover at the most senior levels of government. According to the Brookings Institution, 34 percent of executive office staffers departed in the first year of the administration. (The president with the next-highest rate of year-one attrition among Trump’s five predecessors was Reagan, at 17 percent.)