<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jared-kushner-reveals-details-of-cancer-diagnosis-treatment-report">Jared Kushner</a> claims in his forthcoming memoir that former Trump chief of staff <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-kelly">John Kelly</a> once shoved <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ivanka-trump">Ivanka Trump</a> and later offered a &#8220;meek&#8221; apology for the incident.
Kushner, former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>’s son-in-law and a top White House adviser, said in &#8220;Breaking History: A White House Memoir,&#8221; due to release in August, that Kelly had a &#8220;Jekyll and Hyde&#8221; personality and showed his &#8220;true character&#8221; on the day he allegedly shoved his wife, Ivanka.
“One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office,” Kushner said in the memoir, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/27/kushner-kelly-shove-ivanka-trump/">according</a> to The Washington Post. “Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character.”
Kelly later went to Ivanka&#8217;s office to offer “a meek apology, which she accepted,&#8221; Kushner said, noting that Ivanka&#8217;s chief of staff Julie Radford witnessed the apology. “It was the first and only time that Ivanka’s staff saw Kelly visit their second-floor corner of the West Wing,” he wrote.
Ivanka through a spokesperson said the incident did take place how Kushner recalled in the memoir.
Kelly, though, strongly denied the account, telling the Post, “I don’t recall anything like you describe.”
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“It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman. Inconceivable. Never happen,” the retired four-star general added. “Would never intentionally do something like that. Also, don’t remember ever apologizing to her for something I didn’t do. I’d remember that.”
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Radford told the Post that she heard Kelly apologize to Ivanka.
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Kushner added in the memoir that Kelly was dismissive of Ivanka behind closed doors, but in public showered her &#8220;with compliments to her face that she knew were insincere.”
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“Then the four-star general would call her staff to his office and berate and intimidate them over trivial procedural issues that his rigid system often created,” Kushner wrote. “He would frequently refer to her initiatives like paid family leave and the child tax credit as ‘Ivanka’s pet projects.’”
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As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jared-kushner-reveals-details-of-cancer-diagnosis-treatment-report">reported</a> earlier this week, the memoir also details Kushner&#8217;s thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment, which he has never spoken about publicly.
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“On the morning that I traveled to Texas to attend the opening of a Louis Vuitton factory, White House physician Sean Conley pulled me into the medical cabin on Air Force One,” Kushner said, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/us/politics/jared-kushner-thyroid-cancer.html">according</a> to The New York Times. “‘Your test results came back from Walter Reed,’ he said. ‘It looks like you have cancer. We need to schedule a surgery right away.’”
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jared-kushner-reveals-details-of-cancer-diagnosis-treatment-report">Jared Kushner Reveals Details Of Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment: Report</a>
</div>
</div>

us-POLITICS-trump-departure

Ivanka Trump Once Shoved By John Kelly, Jared Kushner Says In New Memoir; Ivanka, Kelly Respond

Ivanka Trump

Jared Kushner

John Kelly

Another feud seems to have erupted between President Trump and his former chief of staff John Kelly after the four-star general publicly criticized his former boss for what he sees as poor decisionmaking.
Speaking at a Drew University event on Wednesday in New Jersey, Kelly openly critiqued some of President Trump&#8217;s policies and even defended Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the man who testified during Trump&#8217;s impeachment hearings that he felt &#8220;concerned&#8221; by the president&#8217;s July 25 phone call with Ukraine about investigating Joe Biden. 
“He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave,” Kelly <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/482886-john-kelly-praises-vindman-he-did-did-exactly-what-we-teach-them-to">said of Vindman</a>. “He went and told his boss what he just heard. Through the Obama administration up until that phone call, the policy of the U.S. was militarily to support Ukraine in their defensive fight against &#8230; the Russians. When the president said that continued support would be based on X, that essentially changed. And that’s what that guy [Vindman] was most interested in.”
“We teach them, ‘Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss,'&#8221; continued Kelly.
The White House relieved Vindman from his post last Friday. It should be noted that former Medal of Honor recipients have publicly scolded Vindman for his conduct during the House probe into President Trump&#8217;s handling of Ukraine.
“I respect Donald Trump’s actions on escorting [Vindman] out of the White House, because he, as a team player, he should have brought it up through the chain of command, and then blown the whistle if it didn’t get approved,” Leroy Petry <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/fox-friends-smears-lt-col-alexander-vindmans-military-record">told</a> “Fox &amp; Friends” on Sunday. “I respect his service and I understand he’s a Purple Heart recipient, but being a Purple Heart recipient doesn’t make somebody a hero.&#8221;
Medal of Honor recipient David Bellavia also said, &#8220;Vindman is a very controversial guy, depending on your politics; you either love him or you hate him. Joe Biden gave him a standing ovation. Some people see him as just an emotional kid who just is so partisan and blinded by his politics that he jumped the chain of command and was blinded by being a part of history and politics are more important than his oath.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/482935-trump-lashes-out-over-kelly-criticism-he-misses-the-action">The Hill</a>, Kelly also said that the media is &#8220;not the enemy of the people&#8221; while describing migrants as &#8220;overwhelmingly good people.&#8221;
In response to Kelly&#8217;s critique, President Trump tweeted, &#8220;When I terminated John Kelly, which I couldn’t do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. Being Chief of Staff just wasn’t for him. He came in with a bang, went out with a whimper, but like so many X’s, he misses the action &amp; just can’t keep his mouth shut, which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do. His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside &amp; said strongly that &#8216;John respects you greatly. When we are no longer here, he will only speak well of you.&#8217; Wrong!&#8221;
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&#8230;.which he actually has a military and legal obligation to do. His incredible wife, Karen, who I have a lot of respect for, once pulled me aside &amp; said strongly that “John respects you greatly. When we are no longer here, he will only speak well of you.” Wrong!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1227986937652350976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
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TrumpKell

John Kelly Rebukes Trump For Firing Of Col. Vindman; Trump Fires Back

Alexander Vindman

On Monday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who is a constitutional attorney by training, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nftdgUFTk58">joined</a> “Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler” on One America News Network to discuss former Trump administration Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley&#8217;s bombshell revelation, in her new book, that former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson allegedly attempted to recruit her to deliberately undermine and thwart various aspects of the president&#8217;s foreign policy agenda.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nikki-haley-reveals-john-kelly-rex-tillerson-tried-to-recruit-her-to-save-america-from-donald-trump">reported</a> on Monday: &#8220;Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Haley claimed according <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nikki-haley-reveals-tillerson-kelly-privately-discussed-resisting-trump-it-was-offensive">to Fox News</a>, were working on a &#8216;resistance&#8217; group within the White House and tried to recruit her as a front-line member. &#8230; Haley [said] that the pair &#8216;confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country&#8217; and that &#8216;Tillerson went on to tell me the reason he resisted the president’s decisions was because, if he didn’t, people would die.'&#8221;
Wheeler and Hammer discussed the political and legal ramifications of Haley&#8217;s revelations, with Hammer first pointing out that the insubordination here is not from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-deep-state-is-very-very-real">&#8220;Deep State&#8221;</a> — but from the &#8220;very, very Shallow State&#8221;:
<blockquote>This is actually not the Deep State — this is the very, very shallow State. This is the White House chief of staff and the U.S. secretary of state, for God&#8217;s sake. These are not unelected 24-, 25-year-old &#8230; Ivy League college grads working deep in the bowels of the NSA or CIA. This is the chief of staff to the president of the United States and the lead foreign diplomat for the most powerful country in the world. This is as shallow as the Shallow State gets. But you know what, I&#8217;m assuming Nikki Haley is telling the truth — I have no reason to disbelieve her — so first of all, good for her for actually standing up for the president of the United States here.</blockquote>
Hammer continued to explain why the actions Haley revealed were not just immoral due to rank insubordination, but are also actually unconstitutional:
<blockquote>Let&#8217;s break this down a little bit, legally. The Constitution is extraordinarily clear on this. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">Article II, Section 1</a> says &#8220;[t]he executive power&#8221; shall be vested in a president of the United States. Not vested in the entire executive branch — that&#8217;s it, it&#8217;s [vested] in the president of the United States.
So let&#8217;s ask, what is &#8220;the executive power?&#8221; Well, we have great scholarship on this. There is a <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/the-executive-power-over-foreign-affairs">famous 2001 law review</a> article by legal scholars Sai Prakash and Mike Ramsey that looks back and determines that the term &#8220;executive power,&#8221; as used by Locke, Montesquieu, and Blackstone, was a well-known legal turn of phrase that encompassed most of the foreign affairs power. So let&#8217;s put two and two together. The foreign affairs power is expressly vested in the Constitution of the United States in a president to the United States. It is unconstitutional for subversive bureaucrats, no matter how high or how deep they are, to undermine the president on this.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Deep State" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nftdgUFTk58?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN screen grab 11.11.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: The Deep AND Shallow States Are Both Out For Trump

Constitution

Donald Trump

Foreign Policy

Nikki Haley

Rex Tillerson

On Monday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” Knowles talks about an allegation in Nikki Haley’s new book that former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to induce her to undermine the president. Video and partial transcript below: 
All of these mainstream outlets just do not command our respect, and it makes you think a little differently about the president, who is usually the object of their ire.
Even in the administration, we had been told that all the really smart people — all the fancy people who wear jackets and ties and live in the Beltway — they said, look, Trump might be terrible, I&#8217;m talking about even right-wingers, Trump might be terrible, but at least we have responsible people in the administration. Good, serious, responsible people defending the rule of law, defending our institutions and our norms. People like, I don&#8217;t know, Rex Tillerson, former secretary of state. People like John Kelly, former White House chief of staff. They&#8217;re the good guys. They&#8217;re the one defending our norms and our Constitution; Trump is the one destroying it.
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Except now in a new book, in a new interview, Nikki Haley is saying that it was actually guys like Tillerson and Kelly who were undermining our norms, undermining our institutions, undermining our Constitution. Nikki Haley writes in her new book, quote, “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they were not being insubordinate. They were trying to save the country.”
Here&#8217;s Nikki Haley:
<blockquote>REPORTER: Secretary of State Tillerson went on to tell you the reason he resisted the president&#8217;s decisions was because if he didn&#8217;t, people would die. You memorialize that conversation, it definitely happened?
HALEY: It absolutely happened, and instead of saying that to me, they should have been saying that to the president. Not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan, it should have been, go tell the president what your differences are and quit if you don&#8217;t like what he&#8217;s doing. But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing, and it goes against the constitution and it goes against what the American people want. It was was offensive. </blockquote>
That&#8217;s absolutely right, and this is where I begin when I&#8217;m evaluating something that the president has done. I do not begin from the position that Trump is always right, [and] I love everything he&#8217;s doing. Whether that&#8217;s on policy, whether that&#8217;s on executive action, whether that&#8217;s on his behavior, that&#8217;s actually not where I begin. 
I do have some policy problems with the president. For instance, I didn&#8217;t like the First Step Act — I thought that was a mistake. I felt that health care could&#8217;ve been handled a little differently, sure. So there are some policy differences. However, where I begin is from a position of assuming the best of the president, and maybe the corruption of the mainstream media. Why do I assume that? Because that&#8217;s exactly the opposite of the script that I&#8217;m being told by the mainstream media, and I&#8217;ve just been fooled one too many times.
The media have told us that Trump colluded with Russia to overturn the 2016 election, that he should be impeached for his tax problems, that he&#8217;s a racist and a bigot, and a Nazi, and a terrible person. They&#8217;ve been lying the whole time, and so I just approach these questions, not even with treating these guys differently. I won&#8217;t even say that I begin assuming Trump is really great, and the media are really terrible. 
I just begin with a little skepticism about those claims. And I give a little bit of grace to the president because it&#8217;s the opposite of what we&#8217;re getting, and usually that appears to be the right way to go. You can even see this with the ex-Trump administration officials who have done well. The ones who have done well, [like Nikki Haley], the ones who position themselves well are the ones who don&#8217;t throw him under the bus. 
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of “The Michael Knowles Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show">Watch “The Michael Knowles Show” on-demand!</a>

President Trump Departs White House For Minneapolis

KNOWLES: How To Flip The Script On The Mainstream Media

Media

Media Bias

Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley addressed questions on Monday that she faced after claiming over the weekend that former chief-of-staff John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approached her and asked her to undermine President Donald Trump.
In an interview with CBS News over the weekend, Haley <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nikki-haley-was-asked-by-cabinet-members-john-kelly-and-rex-tillerson-to-take-sides-against-president-trump/">said</a>:
<blockquote>Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren&#8217;t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country … Tillerson went on to tell me the reason he resisted the president&#8217;s decisions was because, if he didn&#8217;t, people would die. This was how high the stakes were, he and Kelly told me. We are doing the best we can do to save the country, they said. We need you to work with us and help us do it. This went on for over an hour.
It absolutely happened. And instead of saying that to me, they should&#8217;ve been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan. It should&#8217;ve been, &#8220;Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don&#8217;t like what he&#8217;s doing.&#8221; But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive.</blockquote>
Haley faced scrutiny from some prominent conservatives over her claims, including from radio host Rush Limbaugh, who responded to Haley&#8217;s quote on CBS News by <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/11/11/did-nikki-haley-tell-trump/">saying</a>, &#8220;Well, no kidding! Did you go tell the president, Nikki? I don’t know that anybody’s asked her that. Did you tell the president these guys were trying to subvert? Did you tell him that they were trying to undermine him? One is the chief of staff; the other one’s the secretary of state. Now, as I said, I was surprised. I was dead wrong about Tillerson. I’m not surprised about John Kelly. And I should have been more up to speed on Tillerson.&#8221;
Haley addressed the questions raised by Limbaugh and others during a Fox News appearance on Trump&#8217;s favorite show, &#8220;Hannity.&#8221;
&#8220;What has gotten a lot of people&#8217;s attention is the conversation about an hour: Rex Tillerson, General Kelly, and I guess tell that story, and out of it — I was wondering, &#8216;Why did you not feel, or did you at any point feel, a need to tell the president, &#8216;Hey, this is what these guys are doing&#8217;?&#8221; Sean Hannity asked.
&#8220;Well, I did tell the president. And, I mean, keep in mind, Sean, this is one page out of 250 pages of the book, but I did tell the president, and I did tell the National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster,&#8221; Haley responded. &#8220;And there were others that knew of my concerns in the process.&#8221;
&#8220;And let&#8217;s keep in mind — I mean, what I have said is this wasn&#8217;t that these guys thought this was a rogue president,&#8221; Haley continued. &#8220;This was that these guys disagreed with his policy. They disagreed with us getting out of the Paris Climate Agreement. They disagreed with us getting out of the Iran deal. They disagreed with moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. So, when the president was charting a different course, and really giving us a strong hand for America and for our friends, they just thought that he was going on in the wrong direction.&#8221;
&#8220;And so, when they sat me down that day, they were attempting to tell me that if I would work with them, they were trying to save America and keep people from dying,&#8221; Haley added. &#8220;But we saw, when the embassy moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the sky is still up there. It didn&#8217;t fall, and we didn&#8217;t see casualties. What we saw was a courageous moment by the president that many presidents had tried before that was very successful. And it acknowledged a fact, which Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Nikki Haley on whether she notified President Trump that Rex Tillerson and John Kelly were trying to undermine him: “I did tell the president. … this wasn&#8217;t that these guys thought this was a rogue president. This was that these guys disagreed with his policy.” <a href="https://t.co/JGJmBJibSy">pic.twitter.com/JGJmBJibSy</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1194161124024803328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2019</a></blockquote>

Haley Responds To Questions Over Claims Kelly, Tillerson Schemed Against Trump

Sean Hannity

In a wide-ranging interview with CBS News anchor Nora O&#8217;Donnell, the Trump Administration&#8217;s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, revealed that several key members of President Donald Trump&#8217;s White House staff tried to pressure her to &#8220;save the country&#8221; by challenging Trump.
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Haley claimed according <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nikki-haley-reveals-tillerson-kelly-privately-discussed-resisting-trump-it-was-offensive">to Fox News</a>, were working on a &#8220;resistance&#8221; group within the White House and tried to recruit her as a front-line member.
Haley told O&#8217;Donnell that the pair &#8220;confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren&#8217;t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country” and that “Tillerson went on to tell me the reason he resisted the president&#8217;s decisions was because, if he didn&#8217;t, people would die.&#8221;
Haley first revealed the conversations in her new book, &#8220;With All Due Respect.&#8221; She elaborated on the secret conversations in her interview with O&#8217;Donnell, which aired during a segment on CBS Sunday Morning.
&#8220;[I]nstead of saying that to me, they should&#8217;ve been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan,&#8221; Haley told O&#8217;Donnell, making it clear that she much preferred confronting the president outright than organizing behind his back.
“It should&#8217;ve been, &#8216;Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don&#8217;t like what he&#8217;s doing,&#8217;” Haley told O’Donnell. “But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive.&#8221;
Haley&#8217;s book outlines a number of clashes she had with Trump&#8217;s White House Chief of Staff and the president&#8217;s former Secretary of State, including an incident that centered around her decision to withdraw the United States&#8217; support from a United Nations body that supported Palestinians and gave material support to organizations that supported terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Tillerson and Kelly opposed the move, Haley wrote, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/politics/nikki-haley-tillerson-kelly-save-the-country-recruit-white-house/index.html">according to CNN</a>. Trump&#8217;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, helped Haley get the decision approved.
&#8220;I was so shocked I didn&#8217;t say anything going home because I just couldn&#8217;t get my arms around the fact that here you have two key people in an administration undermining the President,&#8221; Haley told the Washington Post in an interview about her book.
In her book, Haley portrays herself as a strong voice of reason in an otherwise chaotic White House, even opposing the President when the need arose. In &#8220;With All Due Respect,&#8221; Haley recalls confronting Trump over his initial cozy relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and dressing down the President over his &#8220;moral equivalence&#8221; between leftist protesters and white nationalists in the wake of a white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one leftist protester dead.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, has often been cited as a future Republican presidential candidate and a potential replacement for current Vice President Mike Pence, if President Donald Trump wins re-election and serves a second term. <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/former-gop-senator-urges-nikki-haley-to-challenge-trump-in-2020">Several former members of the GOP</a> have pressed Haley to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020, but Haley seems content to begin laying the foundation for a future run.

Nikki Haley Donald Trump

Nikki Haley Reveals John Kelly, Rex Tillerson Tried To Recruit Her To ‘Save’ America From Donald Trump

President Trump&#8217;s former White House chief of staff, General John Kelly, announced this week he would have served under Hillary Clinton if she had won the 2016 election.
&#8220;If Hillary Clinton had called me, I would have done it,&#8221; Kelly said during an appearance at Duke University this week, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/john-kelly-differs-trump-immigration-mum-security-clearances-n980326">NBC News</a>.
While John Kelly did not divulge much about his time in the Trump administration, the general did seem to confirm reports about his being unhappy during his tenure in the White House to the point of admitting he disagreed with some of the administration&#8217;s policies, especially on immigration.
&#8220;It was a notable contrast to Kelly&#8217;s aggressive pushback on news reports while in the White House about his actions and relationship with Trump,&#8221; reports NBC News. &#8220;On Wednesday he even stressed several times the importance of a free press.&#8221;
Kelly, however, avoided answering questions pertaining to President Trump allegedly &#8220;intervening to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-refuses-hand-over-kushner-security-clearance-docs-n979676" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">secure top-secret security clearances</a> for his daughter Ivanka Trump and son&#8211;in&#8211;law.&#8221;
&#8220;Kelly did not deny reports that President Donald Trump circumvented the usual process to grant the security clearances or that he later wrote a memo outlining his concerns about it,&#8221; says NBC. &#8220;He simply said he believes any such conversations with the president would be privileged and that he&#8217;s not at liberty to discuss security clearances.&#8221;
The four-star general, who first served as Trump&#8217;s Homeland Security secretary before being plunged into the White House chief of staff, admitted that his time in the White House was &#8220;the least enjoyable job I&#8217;ve ever had.&#8221;
&#8220;But it was the most important job I&#8217;ve ever had,&#8221; he added.
Kelly minced few words on how the Trump administration has handled the Southern border crisis, going so far as to say that the U.S. does not &#8220;need a wall from sea to shining sea.&#8221; He also laid some of the blame on Attorney General Jeff Sessions for allowing the White House to be caught off guard by the &#8220;zero tolerance policy.&#8221;
&#8220;And by the way, they&#8217;re overwhelmingly not criminals,&#8221; Kelly said of those illegally crossing the Southern border. &#8220;They&#8217;re people coming up here for economic purposes. I don&#8217;t blame them for that.&#8221;
Kelly&#8217;s comments echoed statements he made in a previous interview with the Los Angeles Times upon his resignation from the Trump administration.
&#8220;To be honest, it&#8217;s not a wall,&#8221; Kelly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39777/chief-staff-john-kelly-defends-trump-takes-aim-emily-zanotti">told the LA Times</a>. &#8220;The president still says &#8216;wall&#8217; &#8212; oftentimes frankly he&#8217;ll say &#8216;barrier&#8217; or &#8216;fencing,&#8217; now he&#8217;s tended toward steel slats. But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.&#8221;
In the same interview, Kelly also denied reports that President Trump simply makes gut decisions without being informed.
&#8220;It&#8217;s never been: The president just wants to make a decision based on no knowledge and ignorance,&#8221; Kelly said. &#8220;You may not like his decision, but at least he was fully informed on the impact.&#8221;

John Kelly: I Would Have Served Under Hillary If She Won

Hillary Clinton

Trump Administration

Former White House communications aide Cliff Sims is releasing a book called &#8220;Team of Vipers&#8221; next week which chronicles his time in the White House. According to The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/absolutely-out-of-control-cliff-simss-book-depicts-life-in-trumps-white-house/2019/01/21/883d2412-1d92-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html?utm_term=.7c4d877856eb&amp;noredirect=on">Washington Post</a>, which received an advance copy, the book highlights several rifts between President Donald Trump and officials, including former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Although books have been released by former White House officials like Omarosa Manigault Newman and George Papadopoulos, The Washington Post claims the book is unlike the others because it is &#8220;neither a sycophantic portrayal of the president nor a blistering account written to settle scores.&#8221;
The Washington Post reports:
<blockquote>
The author presents himself as a true believer in Trump and his agenda, and even writes whimsically of the president, but still is critical of him, especially his morality. Sims also finds fault in himself, a rarity in Trump World, writing that at times he was &#8220;selfish,&#8221; &#8220;nakedly ambitious&#8221; and &#8220;a coward.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The book reportedly covers everything from the crowd size controversy from Trump&#8217;s inauguration to Kelly&#8217;s unhappiness with his role.
According to Sims, Kelly said he was serving his &#8220;country first, POTUS second.&#8221; Sims claims that Kelly told him, &#8220;This is the worst [expletive] job I&#8217;ve ever had. People apparently think that I care when they write that I might be fired. If that ever happened, it would be the best day I&#8217;ve had since I walked into this place.&#8221;
Sims reportedly tells another story about Ryan visiting the Oval Office to discuss healthcare, waiting for several minutes before the president walked out of the room and down the hallway. Sims wrote that Vice President Pence had to convince Trump to return to the office.
&#8220;It&#8217;s impossible to deny how absolutely out of control the White House staff &#8212; again, myself included &#8212; was at times,&#8221; Sims wrote.
Sims claims that Trump was very suspicious of his aides, eventually leading him to make a list of enemies within his administration on White House stationary. 
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to get rid of all of the snakes, even the bottom-feeders,&#8221; Trump said, according to Sims.
Sims also reportedly called counselor Kellyanne Conway &#8220;the American Sniper of West Wing marksmen&#8221; and said her agenda was &#8220;survival over all others, including the president.&#8221;
The book&#8217;s description on the publisher&#8217;s website <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250223890">says</a> Sims took notes in real time and was standing at Trump&#8217;s side on election night and in Trump&#8217;s inner circle as &#8220;a confidante, an errand boy, an advisor, a punching bag, and a friend. Sometimes all in the same conversation.&#8221;
&#8220;For five hundred days, Sims also witnessed first-hand the infighting and the leaking, the anger, joy, and recriminations,&#8221; the description says. &#8220;He had a role in some of the President&#8217;s biggest successes, and he shared the blame for some of his administration&#8217;s worst disasters. He gained key, often surprising insights into the players of the Trump West Wing, from Jared Kushner and John Kelly to Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway.&#8221;
Sims worked on Trump&#8217;s campaign and then went on to to be a special assistant to the president and White House director of message strategy.

‘Pro-Trump’ Former Aide Writes Book About ‘Absolutely Out Of Control’ White House

Kellyanne Conway

Mike Pence

Paul Ryan

President Donald Trump jabbed back at outgoing White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Monday, insisting that he and others within the Trump administration had not abandoned the idea of a physical wall across the entirety of the United States&#8217; southern border, even as Kelly insisted in an exit interview over the weekend that the &#8220;wall&#8221; was more of an complex deterrent system than a tangible barrier.
&#8220;An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media,&#8221; the president insisted in a morning tweet on the last day of 2018.
&#8220;Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!&#8221; he continued.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media. Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1079721675346923520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
He added that his campaign promise to the build the wall still stands and that his war with Democrats over a Congressional budget will yield the physical barrier that he mentioned in countless campaign speeches.
&#8220;I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall. Our Southern Border has long been an &#8216;Open Wound,&#8217; where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here an fix now!&#8221; the president tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall. Our Southern Border has long been an &#8220;Open Wound,&#8221; where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here an fix now!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1079731279032172545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
Congress still has at least two days before it officially returns to work, and that Congress will look substantially different from the one that went into recess in late December right before the Christmas holiday. Beginning in early January, Democrats will have control of the House of Representatives and Rep. Nancy Pelosi will lead a majority rather than a minority, making it far less likely that Trump will get a good deal on the border wall in return for a long-term federal budget agreement.
But Trump&#8217;s comments don&#8217;t appear to be directed at Democrats unwilling to come to the bargaining table on immigration, but rather at his outgoing Chief of Staff, who will leave the White House officially on Wednesday. Over the weekend, Kelly told <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-john-kelly-exit-interview-20181230-story.html">the Los Angeles Times</a>, in a wide-ranging interview, that he did not believe Trump&#8217;s &#8220;wall&#8221; was still a physical barrier.
&#8220;The president still says &#8216;wall&#8217; &#8211; oftentimes frankly he&#8217;ll say &#8216;barrier&#8217; or &#8216;fencing,&#8217; now he&#8217;s tended toward steel slats,&#8221; Kelly said. &#8220;But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.&#8221;
But the president may have jumped on an innocuous comment. Rather than criticizing the administration&#8217;s approach to a wall, Kelly insisted that Trump and others were thinking critically about security along the southern border and had consulted with the Customs and Border Protection agents on how best to approach a &#8220;border wall&#8221; construction project.

President Trump Jabs Back At Outgoing Chief Of Staff John Kelly Over Wall Comments

Illegal Immigration

Outgoing White House Chief of Staff John Kelly took aim at President Donald Trump&#8217;s border wall in his &#8220;exit interview&#8221; with the Los Angeles Times, but defended the president, countering media claims that Trump often acts without knowing the consequences of his decisions.
In an <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/kids/other/outgoing-white-house-chief-of-staff-john-f-kelly-defends-his-rocky-tenure/ar-BBRBb1c?li=BBnb7Kz">extended interview with the LA Times</a>, Kelly told reporters that the president routinely consults multiple sources of information before making a decision, even if it often seems like Trump acts without regard for conseq&#8203;uences.
&#8220;It&#8217;s never been: The president just wants to make a decision based on no knowledge and ignorance,&#8221; Kelly said. &#8220;You may not like his decision, but at least he was fully informed on the impact.&#8221;
But Kelly also took credit for whipping the White House into shape and imposing a sense of order on the Trump administration&#8217;s central organizational hub &#8212; something Kelly says was clearly missing when he first entered the job in 2017. Kelly added that he feels his tenure was successful because he helped the president view his actions through a lens that wasn&#8217;t tainted by politics, a benefit, Kelly says, of his own military training.
Kelly also defended the president from claims that he&#8217;s uncontrollable because the president still tweets, even amid political strife.
But Kelly wasn&#8217;t willing to defend every action of the Trump White House. In his interview, Kelly was surprisingly critical of President Donald Trump&#8217;s signature anti-illegal immigration effort, the border wall &#8212; an issue currently at the forefront of national politics and the crux of Trump&#8217;s current budget stalemate with Congress.
&#8220;To be honest, it&#8217;s not a wall,&#8221; Kelly told the LA Times, upending an ongoing talking point from the White House that billions are needed to construct a massive, physical wall on the border between the United States and Mexico.
&#8220;The president still says &#8216;wall&#8217; &#8212; oftentimes frankly he&#8217;ll say &#8216;barrier&#8217; or &#8216;fencing,&#8217; now he&#8217;s tended toward steel slats. But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it,&#8221; Kelly continued.
Members of the media were quick to pounce on Kelly&#8217;s comments, taking them as critical of the administration&#8217;s plan.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;To be honest, it&#8217;s not a wall,&#8221; John Kelly told the LA Times in an interview. The last time Kelly went on Fox and said the president was &#8220;uninformed&#8221; on the wall during the campaign, Trump shouted at him so loudly it could be heard outside Oval. This time, Kelly is out.
&#8212; Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) <a href="https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1079355870985756672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;To be honest, it&#8217;s not a wall,&#8221; John Kelly tells the LA Times. &#8220;The president still says &#8216;wall&#8217; &#8212; oftentimes frankly he&#8217;ll say &#8216;barrier&#8217; or &#8216;fencing,&#8217; now he&#8217;s tended toward steel slats. But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/rMxBqfKDPp">https://t.co/rMxBqfKDPp</a>
&#8212; Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) <a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1079387905704017920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
But Kelly&#8217;s assessment of the &#8220;wall&#8221; isn&#8217;t nearly as critical as left-leaning media, particularly on social media, might have readers believe. In fact, Kelly is clear that the White House &#8212; and particularly the Department of Homeland Security &#8212; worked directly with members of the Customs and Border Protection force to determine what the best design for a so-called &#8220;border wall&#8221; might be.
&#8220;When Kelly led Homeland Security in early 2017, one of his first steps was to seek advice from those who &#8216;actually secure the border&#8217;; Customs and Border Protection agents who Kelly calls &#8216;salt-of-the-earth, Joe-Six-Pack folks,'&#8221; the LA Times reports.
&#8220;They said, &#8216;Well we need a physical barrier in certain places, we need technology across the board, and we need more people,&#8217;&#8221; he added.
The White House is still in the midst of a battle over funding for the border wall, which is expected to pick up Wednesday when Congress returns to Washington, D.C. after their holiday. By then, Kelly will be gone. He is due to depart his job as Chief of Staff the same day.

Chief Of Staff John Kelly Defends Trump But Takes Aim At Border Wall In Final Interview

Democratic Party

Republican Party

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will be out of work &#8220;by the end of the year,&#8221; according to President Donald Trump.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/us/politics/john-kelly-chief-staff-trump.html">The New York Times</a> reports that Kelly&#8217;s departure is part of a &#8220;planned staff shakeup&#8221; and does not come as a surprise to the retired General, hired initially to bring a sense of calm and order to a West Wing that seemed uncontrollably chaotic in the first few months of the Trump administration.
The parting, though, is mutual; reports say Trump has wanted Kelly to move on for some time, and Kelly now feels he&#8217;s no longer useful in organizing the White House staff, having done all he can to impose a sense of order in Trump&#8217;s administration.
&#8220;John Kelly will be leaving &#8212; I don&#8217;t know if I can say &#8216;retiring,&#8217;&#8221; the president told reporters during the annual Army-Navy game Saturday. &#8220;But he&#8217;s a great guy. John Kelly will be leaving at the end of the year.&#8221;
Kelly&#8217;s replacement is already waiting in the wings.
&#8220;Mr. Trump has settled on Nick Ayers, a youthful but experienced political operative who serves as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, as his top choice to replace Mr. Kelly, people familiar with the matter said,&#8221; according to the NYT. &#8220;In Mr. Ayers, Mr. Trump sees what Mr. Kelly, a career military officer, was not: a wily political operative whose focus would be on politics and campaigning as the president looks toward his re-election bid.&#8221;
Ayers is expected to serve only on an interim basis, however, while the White House finds a more suitable long-term replacement to take them through the 2020 campaign season. That&#8217;s a natural transition, though. Each White House has made big changes ahead of a re-election effort in order to withstand the intense criticism leveled during heated political battles, and to manage a more temporary flow of employees, many of whom will leave to join the president&#8217;s re-election campaign, to be replaced by newer, greener staffers.
Kelly&#8217;s departure is also no surprise, least of all to Kelly. The White House Chief of Staff has been working &#8212; sometimes unconvincingly &#8212; to assure nervous media and lawmakers that he had complete control in the White House and that he had no plans to leave his post for at least the last six months.
But even if it was an expected staff shift, it doesn&#8217;t make it any less nerve-wracking for prominent Republicans,
Outgoing Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) tweeted his goodbyes on Saturday.
&#8220;Our country is better for his duty at the White House. During this time he has become a dear friend and trusted partner,&#8221; Ryan wrote on social media. &#8220;He was a force for order, clarity, and good sense. He is departing what is often a thankless job, but John Kelly has my eternal gratitude.&#8221;
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who has been a surprisingly vocal critic of the president this weekend, expressed concern that a moderating force was departing the White House, leaving inevitable chaos in his wake.
&#8220;It depends who they put in as a replacement,&#8221; Rubio told CNN&#8217;s State of the Union Sunday morning. &#8220;Hopefully it will be someone just as qualified, just as strong. It&#8217;s good for our country to have someone like that in that post.&#8221;
Kelly is expected to release a statement detailing the specifics of his departure on Monday.

White House Chief Of Staff John Kelly Will Leave ‘By The End Of the Year,’ Trump Says

President Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, were not the best of buds during the 2016 campaign. But the two buried the hatchet before Trump took office &#8212; and Obama even offered some helpful advice to the incoming commander in chief.
In an exclusive interview with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-in-exclusive-interview-reveals-obamas-private-guidance-on-greatest-threat-to-the-u-s">Fox News</a>, Trump revealed that Obama told him what he thought was the most pressing problem facing the United States.
&#8220;I think North Korea&#8217;s been very tough because you know we were very close. When I took that over &#8212; President Obama right in those two chairs, we sat and talked and he said that&#8217;s by far the biggest problem that this country has,&#8221; Trump told Fox host Chris Wallace as he pointed to some Oval Office chairs. &#8220;And I think we had a real decision as to which way to go on North Korea and certainly at least so far, I&#8217;m very happy with the way we went.&#8221;
But Trump also took aim at Obama, who has been an outspoken critic of the president. Trump said during the midterm elections, the candidates he backed won as the candidates Obama backed lost.
&#8220;I won against President Obama and Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama in a great state called Georgia for the governor,&#8221; Trump said, referring to the people who descended on the state to back Democrat Stacey Abrams. &#8220;And it was all stacked against Brian [Kemp], and I was the one that went for Brian, and Brian won.&#8221;
&#8220;Look at Florida,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;I went down to Florida. [GOP Senate candidate] Rick Scott won, and he won by a lot. I don&#8217;t know what happened to all those votes that disappeared at the very end. And if I didn&#8217;t put a spotlight on that election before it got down to the 12,500 votes, he would have lost that election, OK? In my opinion he would have lost. They would have taken that election away from him. Rick Scott won Florida.&#8221;
Trump also commented on other topics, including the fate of Department of Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen, who is reportedly on her way out of the administration.
&#8220;Well, I like her a lot. I respect her a lot,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;She&#8217;s very smart. I want her to get much tougher and we&#8217;ll see what happens there. But I want to be extremely tough. &#8230; I like her very much, I respect her very much, I&#8217;d like her to be much tougher on the border &#8212; much tougher, period.&#8221;
On whether White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will stay on, Trump said: &#8220;There are certain things I love what he does, and there are certain things that I don&#8217;t like that he does &#8212; that aren&#8217;t his strength. It&#8217;s not that he doesn&#8217;t do &#8212; you know he works so hard. He&#8217;s doing an excellent job in many ways. There are a couple of things where it&#8217;s just not his strength. It&#8217;s not his fault, it&#8217;s not his strength. &#8230; But John, at some point, is going to want to move on. John will move on,&#8221; Trump said.

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