Former Marine General John Kelly, Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff, has been known to privately criticize the commander-in-chief, sometimes to comic effect — he was forced to deny reports earlier this year that he had called his boss an idiot, despite the fact that it was recounted by multiple news outlets as having been something people heard first hand.
Now, however, it looks less comical and more like a cry for help.
The remark in April, first reported by NBC News, then confirmed to the Associated Press by the official who heard him say it, was tepidly countered at the time, with Kelly addressing it as “total BS.” But with the release of legendary Washington Post correspondent Bob Woodward’s book Fear: Trump in the White House, the anonymous former official has some backup in his assertions from Kelly’s aides, who had even more to say about the matter:
He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”
While we can certainly appreciate Kelly’s attempt as a soldier to show public deference for the President, we’re not sure which part of that statement he thinks America doesn’t already know. Woodward’s account has yet another colorful exchange with General Kelly, in which he privately commiserated with the former chief economic adviser over Trump’s mishandling of the 2017 Charlottesville murder of a peaceful protester by white nationalists who organized a pro-Trump rally in the city.
Cohn, who had attempted to resign over the President’s comments that there were “good people on both sides,” was convinced to stay by the unhinged Trump, who told him that leaving would be tantamount to treason. Kelly reportedly told Cohn:
I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times.”
We would love to see a Chief of Staff take that kind of initiative.
Featured image via screen capture
