Day 229: All Things Considered, John Kelly Has Been Pretty Good — So Far

The new Chief of Staff has done a decent job in bringing as much normalcy as possible to the White House

When Donald Trump’s former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was ousted at the end of July, no one was particularly bullish about the job his successor would be able to do. After all, how do you rein in someone with the temperament and pettiness of Trump?

As new Chief of Staff John Kelly is learning, you really can’t — at least all the way.

Trump is still bombastic, and goes off on absurd rants and raves. He still blames the media over incredibly odd things and threatens nations with economic penalties likely to hurt the U.S. just as much as anyone else. And, yeah, he casually threatens war with countries via Twitter.

But Kelly deserves some credit.

He’s gotten rid of the lunatics around Trump. See-ya, Bannon and Gorka.

He’s prevented new nuts from joining the fray. Sorry, Clarke.

He’s ended the parade of fringe figures getting in Trump’s ear only to stir the pot. Less time for you, Omarosa.

Hell, he’s even trained prized child, Ivanka, to make an appointment if she’s going to speak to Trump about political issues.

He’s slowed the wave of propaganda that filled the Oval Office.

Kelly’s goal has been to stabilize the White House, not for some sense of loyalty to Trump specifically, but a loyalty to the nation as a whole. A career military man, the retired four-star Marine general has been seeking a sense of normalcy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It will never happen entirely under Trump, but Kelly has done an admirable job getting as close as possible in the mere six weeks he’s had his Chief of Staff gig — a political job for which he had little experience.

According to The New York Times, after the disastrous rally in Phoenix last month, Trump lashed out at the person nearest to him, which just so happened to be Kelly. Later, Kelly told White House staff that he would not accept such treatment in the future, as he had never been spoken to like that at any point in his service to the country.

Americans should hope that Kelly doesn’t go anywhere. Right now, he’s been one of the few people around Trump that have had a positive effect on the White House and the tradition of the office in 229 days.

229 days in, 1233 to go

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