John Kelly and Jared Kushner are about to take each other down
Donald Trump’s full time nanny, General John Kelly, and his other full time nanny, son-in-law Jared Kushner, have officially locked horns with each other. Kushner is going behind Kelly’s back to hold freelancing meetings with various political figures, even as Kelly asserts that Kushner has no actual job duties. We know where this movie is headed, because we’ve seen it before – and no one survives.
Considering that Trump’s total lack of leadership and capricious nature have led to a White House full of fiefdoms and internal feuding, it’s not shocking to see the new Politico report which pegs Kelly and Kushner as wanting to take each other down (link). It is notable, however, that these are two of the small handful of close advisers that Trump has left, with so many of the others having been forced out by scandal, or having forced each other out. So what happens when two of the last men standing go at it?
The closest parallel is probably this summer’s feud between White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. In the end, Scaramucci did manage to get Priebus ousted – but his methods got him in so much trouble that he was ousted himself just days later. There’s a strong chance that the emerging feud between John Kelly and Jared Kushner will have a similar result, with each of them forcing the other out. There is, however, one key difference here.
Neither Kelly nor Kushner seems to want the job to begin with. John Kelly is a decorated retired military General, and he only took the job out of a sense of duty, but he’s visibly unhappy – and seems willing to walk away if things get too out of control. Kushner has lost much of his influence, he’s been swallowed up by scandal, and he seems to only still be there because his wife Ivanka isn’t quite ready to pack up and head back to New York. But at this rate they may all be gone soon. That would leave Donald Trump with no left at all.
