A mere five days ago I tweeted, “In any other White House or workplace, @Scaramucci would be fired immediately and escorted from the premises by security for what he did.” And this even before the infamous profanity-laden tirade. This was after he’d tweeted a false accusation that then-White House chief-of-staff Reince Priebus had illegally leaked Scaramucci’s financial disclosure forms. He was taking it to the FBI and clearly intended to get Priebus in a heap of legal trouble.
The problem? The newly-minted Trump communications director seemed embarrassingly unaware that (a) leaking an unclassified document is not a crime, and (b) his financial disclosure statement went public a few days earlier and were legally and easily accessed by a reporter. The arrogant rookie tweeted before he thought, a trait he shared with his very temporary boss.
{mosads}He then showed his gross unfitness for the job as he unleashed a foul, disgusting, sexually-explicit rant about fellow senior White House staff to a reporter. He did so on the record, again, ignorantly not understanding how to discuss ground rules with a reporter before such a conversation. Anthony Scaramucci, for all his arrogance and bluster, claims he did not know he was on the record. He was in over his head.
After getting rid of Reince Priebus, Trump brought in General John Kelly as chief of staff who promptly pushed out Scaramucci. While Trump left Priebus on the tarmac after dumping him from Air Force One after his firing, he humiliated Scaramucci by having him immediately escorted from the White House premises.
Scaramucci did what he was hired to do and he was confident he’d be rewarded. Like so many fools before him, he thought he’d be that one special boy to whom Trump would display loyalty.
Every new Trump staffer thinks he or she will be “the one” who can change or manage Trump.
The latest is Gen. John Kelly, who Trump moved from Department of Homeland Security to the White House cesspool. His drama with Scaramucci was well-played, even by Washington standards, to be sure. But he has to know that Trump is a Scaramucci — on steroids.
Trump reportedly was disappointed Priebus didn’t fight back when Scaramucci kneecapped him. Trump wanted a bloody, public battle between Priebus and Scaramucci. He wanted it for his personal entertainment. Trump is like the Michael Vick of politics only, unlike the canine victims of Vick, Trump’s participants had a choice. Priebus folded and decided it wasn’t worth the fight. Scaramucci fancied himself a big political player and spent his brief 10 days in the job spinning around like a Tazmanian Devil armed with a chainsaw. Both men are, today, out of a job. And all eyes are on the man with the job, Kelly.
Can Kelly last? And just how would we define “success” in this job, since Trump’s idea of that may be profoundly different than the sane rest of us. It’s already revealed that Kelly is a James Comey sympathizer, and that he phoned Comey after Trump fired him expressing his disappointment and the possibility he would resign his post as Director of Homeland Security as a result. We don’t know if Trump knew this prior to the general being sworn as his second chief of staff in his young presidency.
Gen. Kelly may, indeed, be able to establish a bit of order with the White House staff — in the short term. He may be able to have Steve Bannon, son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump actually report to him. Sort of. He will not be able to stop leaks. Nor should he. But Trump is still Trump. He is a chaos president, just as Jeb Bush predicted.
Trump is in deep trouble with regard to the Russia investigation and appears to be digging himself into a legal hole with a seriously flawed and ill-advised alleged cover-up strategy (to the degree Trump has any strategy about anything, ever.) Gen. Kelly may be able to control Trump’s Twitter habit during some daylight hours, but unless he plans to Felix and Oscar this gig, Trump’s left to his own devices at night and the wee hours of the morning.
I’ve heard conflicting reports and opinions on Gen. Kelly. But in the end, unless he’s got special powers that no one else has, Trump simply can’t be fixed.
My hope (though not my expectation) is that Gen. Kelly, in conjunction with a few others, will be the hero who reveals enough about the 45th president to bring about removing him from office.
Cheri Jacobus is a former congressional staffer, RNC spokesperson and political consultant. Follow her on Twitter @CheriJacobus.
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