“A great day at the White House!” President Donald Trump said on Monday evening after sacking White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, 10 days after he was hired. Mr. Scaramucci’s firing came at the instance of John Kelly, a former Marine General who took over as the White House Chief of Staff on Monday. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Gen. Kelly has complete authority over all staff and operations at the White House.
President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump and strategist Steve Bannon will report to Gen. Kelly, the White House said, an authority that the former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who resigned last week, did not command.
Chaotic phase
With Mr. Scaramucci gone as fast as he arrived, the Trump White House may have passed a particularly chaotic phase in its ever-volatile existence over the last six months, but it is unclear how long will the calm last. Over the last fortnight, Mr. Trump has ignited controversy after controversy, chiding his own Attorney-General and sniping at Republican Senators for failing to push through legislation that sought to partially repeal Obamacare, among other things. His tweets will not stop, Mr. Trump said on Tuesday morning. “Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media (110 million people). Only way for me to get the truth out!,” he posted on Twitter.
Mr. Trump lavished praise on Gen. Kelly after he was sworn in, but that may not necessarily guarantee anything in the long term. Mr. Trump had effusively praised Mr. Priebus also earlier, but undermined him by creating parallel power centres in the White House and finally hiring Mr. Scaramucci, disregarding Mr. Priebus’s opposition to the appointment.
Mr. Scaramucci used vulgar phrases and metaphors to talk about Mr. Prieubus and Mr. Bannon in an interview, making his own downfall faster and inevitable. But his entry into the White House had already led to the exit of Mr. Preibus, and Sean Spicer as Press Secretary.
“The President certainly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position. And he didn’t want to burden Gen. Kelly also with that line of succession… but Gen. Kelly has the full authority to operate within the White House, and all staff will report to him,” said Ms. Sanders.
Power struggles
There are multiple faultiness in the White House power struggles — nationalists versus globalists, traditional Republicans versus the President’s long-time friends from business, and generals versus civilians, for instance. Gen. Kelly’s challenge will be to bring order into the chaos that these divisions create. Ms. Sanders said Gen. Kelly will control access to the President. Mr. Trump is said to like and respect billionaires and Generals, but such feelings could be fleeting.
Changing perceptions
Mr. Trump is reportedly unhappy with his National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, a serving General. Mr. Trump had appeared to be holding him in high regard at the beginning. With Mr. Trump unsatisfied with the proposals from Pentagon and Gen. McMaster on Afghanistan, which nationalists consider as continuation of the failed ‘establishment’ policies.
The Trump administration’s Russia policy is also in a limbo as relations worsen. The White House has said the President would sign a new legislation passed by the House and the Senate with near total bipartisan unanimity, which will also bind his hands from making any concession to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Russia has asked hundreds of American diplomats to leave and seized two American properties in the country, in retaliation to similar measures taken by the Obama administration in its last days. Mr. Trump has taken a confrontational posture against the Republican Party establishment yet again, and Russia is one key issue on which he does not see eye to eye with them.
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