John Kelly goes off the deep end as Donald Trump goes over the edge
In recent weeks Donald Trump has cast aside one top adviser after another, and with virtually no one left to stand between him and his most deranged instincts, he’s predictably gone fully over the edge. His tweets are more maniacal than ever. His trade war is suicidal. His overall behavior is deteriorating by the hour. Yet somehow, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is still hanging in there with him. Now we’re learning that Kelly is going as far off the deep end as Trump is.
John Kelly and Donald Trump got into a heated exchange (which is a nice way of saying “shouting match”), and then Kelly not only threatened to quit, but went so far as to begin packing his boxes, before ultimately not resigning, according to a new report from Axios. Why does this matter? Even as Trump has spent the past weeks going “full Trump” to the horror of nearly everyone involved, and even as he’s fired a bunch of key people, while other key people have resigned in disgust, Kelly has been the one to try to hang in there and keep Trump from going fully ballistic.
Kelly outed himself a long time ago as a liar and a racist, and under different conditions, we’d be thrilled at the prospect of his resignation. But as reprehensible as he is, Kelly doesn’t appear to be unstable, making him the lone voice of relative sanity competing with the demented voices in Trump’s head. Now Kelly is snapping under the pressure of trying to hang in there with the unhinged Trump.
It’s clear that Donald Trump is no longer listening to John Kelly, even as Kelly has remained in the Chief of Staff position. Best we can tell there is no one advising Trump as he goes over the edge, which would explain why he keeps making basic mistakes like defending Scott Pruitt, whom he’ll eventually have to fire, and nominating Dr. Ronny Jackson, whose confirmation hearings will be humiliating. Contribute to Palmer Report
