Gen. Kelly Bars The Door: New Chief Of Staff Cracks Down On Oval Office Access

Hotair ^ | 08/02/2017 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

How does a new chief of staff establish his authority? By acting as a doorman, first and foremost. Axios’ Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan report that John Kelly has succeeded in controlling access to the Oval Office, part of his mission to instill discipline on a chaotic West Wing:

The door to the Oval Office used to be wide open, with favored officials drifting in and out — even in the middle of meetings — to kibitz with Trump.

Now, the door is closed. Gen. John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, has taken control in dramatic fashion, and is already imposing unmistakable signs of order after just a few days on the job[.]

The increased discipline has improved the atmosphere and the focus already — on both sides of the door. Trump has picked up his game to match Kelly’s new businesslike approach, preparing better for the meetings that do take place in the Oval Office:

Even POTUS appears to be trying to impress his four-star handler, picking up his game by acting sharper in meetings and even rattling off stats.

Sounds impressive. In fact, it sounds so impressive that it still sounds suspiciously like someone in the White House trying to make Kelly look too impressive. The more Kelly gets credit for order in the White House, the more Trump may question whether Kelly’s stealing his thunder. The added anecdote about Trump trying to impress Kelly seems especially calculated to get Trump jealous of Kelly’s press. Perhaps all of that backbiting and scheming left with Kelly’s hiring, and the brief Robespierrian reign of Anthony Scaramucci might have been enough to discourage any further descent into palace intrigue. Perhaps.

The Associated Press report from yesterday also sounded a cautionary note on how long Kelly might go before tripping over the Machiavellian environs of the Trump White House:

David B. Cohen, a University of Akron political science professor writing a book on chiefs of staff, applauded Kelly for doing “things that should have been done on Day One of Reince Priebus’s tenure.” He said Scaramucci’s removal sent a clear message “that going off-script and being undisciplined” would no longer be tolerated at the White House.

But Cohen wondered how long Mr. Trump would go before undermining Kelly.

“President Trump is his own worst enemy,” he said. “He instinctively likes to be his own chief of staff and he’s a pretty awful one.”

On the other hand, Trump’s also no dummy. He might have thought his usual organizational environment of pitting everyone against everyone else would transfer to the public sector, but he had six months to see the results, and they were pretty dismal. Trump appears to have learned a hard lesson and is changing his approach to meet the challenges. The immediate success of Kelly’s leadership can only help Trump feel as though he made the right decision.

It’s only been a few days, so don’t get hopes too high. So far, though, it appears Kelly is doing an expert job at the first task of any competent chief of staff — gatekeeping. It might not be as dramatic as it sounds, or as it was in Fellowship of the Rings, but it’s not easy — especially when working for someone who isn’t known to appreciate formality and discipline.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VISEO

[Parley Baer]

“Trump has picked up his game to match Kelly’s new businesslike approach”

I would say that President Trump not having to spend 25% of his time doing the job that a chief of staff would do will help tremendously. Sounds like the results are already taking place.

[Delta 21]

Dress it right and cover down. 40 inches all around.

[JBW1949]

“President Trump is his own worst enemy,” he said. “He instinctively likes to be his own chief of staff and he’s a pretty awful one.”

Yeah...Gosh, how did president Trump ever get to be a billionaire and such a business success and then, THEN, manage to get himself elected President of the United States????

He is so awful at doing things....

[dforest]

Trump is always sharp in meetings.

What crap this is!

[txrefugee]

All this hooey over the fact that they have closed the door to the Oval Office. Wow…it doesn’t take much to write political commentary these days.

[Clutch Martin]

General Kelly is personally controlling access? No he is the enforcer. White house staffers (administration assistants) are charged to ensure controls are adhered to. Any problems and General Kelly intervenes.

[Red Steel]

Hot snot Air and Cohen, from Akron U. political science fiction, have a gypsy crystal ball knowing Trump is going to get jealous of Kelly and return to being his own Chief of Staff. Yeah right.

[TheTimeOfMan]

Based on what I can observe from the outside - I suspect this article is dead on. Trump has strengths but some glaring weaknesses also.

[pierrem15]

Gen. Kelly, now ab admissionibus.

[pt17]

It’s too early to say much of anything about all this other than to say it looks like a step in the right direction by reigning in the perceived chaos.

[RummyChick]

Priebus tried to do this but wasnt given the authority

Kelly did not want this job. I suspect it will have to go his way or he will quit.

[Bratch]

Laura Ingraham Interviews Corey Lewandowski….

Posted on July 31, 2017 by sundance

CTH doesn’t know enough about General John Kelly (specifically) to be overly concerned about his political influence as Chief-of-Staff.

However, CTH does know how the Administrative State operates, and therein everyone should watch closely and cautiously.

If the President becomes isolated from his base of support, and consequently removed from his campaign promises, John Kelly will be the cause.

The administrative state, facilitated by both Republicans and Democrat wings of the UniParty, have a descending list of priorities.  At the top of that list are: •continuance of the Multinational Corporate financial system, •crony capitalistic trade deals, •control over multinational banking systems, and •a porous U.S. border to include massive migration.

To facilitate and retain these priorities the President must be marginalized. To gain that marginalization the Deep State agenda is to isolate the existential threat that is Trump. One of the key indicators on John Kelly will be if the “physical structure” of the Southern Security Border Wall is abandoned.  That’s a tripwire to watch.

• Corey Lewandowski on The Laura Ingraham Show (7/31/2017)

 

Trust is tenuous.  The absence of trust makes everyone nervous.

[budj]

“own worst enemy” Right, I think we all get tired of the haters putting down the strategies that got Trump elected.

They’d love for him to quit.

[WMarshal]

President Trump is a total failure. After all he is only a self-made billionaire who has been successful in multiple industries, a serial entrepreneur, a novice politician who on his first run for any office took on the entire political establishment, the MSM, both political parties, the UN, creepy socialists the world over, and won the the Presidency of United States on his first try and did it on the cheap!.

I laugh every time I read or see something from the MSM when they try to convince us that he is uniquely unqualified! Even Baghdad Bob would blush trying to push these lies.

[TheConservativeTejano]

All this hooey over the fact that they have closed the door to the Oval Office. Wow…it doesn’t take much to write political commentary these days.

We have the America Hating Fake News and the America Hating Liberal Left MSM making $$$Millions of dollars on reporting liberal slanted news or writing liberal slanted articles for newspaper consumption.

The Major Networks crowd pay their guys around $25 Million a year for a News Anchor. It is starting to sound like the Gravy Train to us.

[PCPOET7]

people that are good at there job have multiplying effect on those around them. the fact that President Trump has a chief of staff who is making major decisions for him frees up the president to get things done. the job of a good chief of staff is to anticipate what the president wants done and act accordingly. he also has to look for the things that the president has not anticipated and decide if it is important enough to bring it to his attention.

[DesertRhino]

Having some career staff officer there is probably ok. But has it been confirmed whether or not he called Comey to sympathize?

[Parley Baer]

“people that are good at there job have multiplying effect on those around them. the fact that President Trump has a chief of staff who is making major decisions for him frees up the president to get things done. the job of a good chief of staff is to anticipate what the president wants done and act accordingly. he also has to look for the things that the president has not anticipated and decide if it is important enough to bring it to his attention.”

I could not agree more.

[DesertRhino]

And Kelly is reported to have gone to Aspen and commented that he basically had Trump talked into building a virtual wall with techie stuff, and then getting him to call it a barrier.

I am not at all convinced Kelly is on the MAGA side. Just another globalist hack is what I see.