, Columnist
John Kelly's Toughest Task Is Rebuilding Trump's Staff
He's cleaning up the White House, but still needs to seriously staff up.
Five weeks later.
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When John Kelly became chief of staff on the last day of July, I outlined the ways we'll know if he's really taking charge of President Trump's chaotic White House. It's been a little more than a month, which might seem like not much time at all. Then again, a presidential term only has 48 months, so each one wasted is sort of a big deal.
My gut-level impression is that he's off to a fairly promising start at avoiding a worst-possible Trump administration. At the same time, he's done little to build anything positive, and may not even be especially interested in doing so. It's a huge improvement from the January White House, but the nation still needs better.