The power struggle in the White House is over for now with Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci the winner of the political war. The loser of the power struggle is Chief Of Staff Reince Priebus, who after a public spat with the former Wall Street financier, will be replaced by retired Gen. John Kelly.
In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump announced the latest round of changes at the White House by thanking Priebus for his service and introducing his replacement. The recent changes make Priebus the second victim of the power struggle with the designation of Scaramucci as communications director which led Press Secretary Sean Spicer to resign.
I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017
...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017
I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017
Kelly begins on Monday
The 67-year-old incoming chief of staff is a retired four-star Marine Corps general. He is the current secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and will begin as chief of staff on Monday.
Trump will bring in Kelly to bring more discipline to the White House which suffered recently from leaks, Reuters reported.
The exit of Priebus was preceded by a leak incident that resulted in Scaramucci calling Priebus a f***king paranoid. Priebus allegedly leaked to a reporter that Scaramucci had dinner with Trump and his wife Melania.
The outgoing chief of staff was with the president on Air Force One, the presidential plane, when Trump announced his replacement.
According to CNN, Priebus wanted to leave the White House and had talked to Trump about his exit. “The president has a right to hit a reset button … He intuitively determined it was time to do something different, and I think he’s right,” Priebus said.
It was not the leaks that did Priebus but the failure of Trump’s major legislative agenda to get Congressional approval, which made the president question his competence. On the same day that he replaced Priebus, Trump’s campaign promise to repeal ObamaCare suffered its fourth rejection by senators, with the help from three GOP members, including Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Trump allegedly loves Scaramucci’s profanity
Besides Priebus, Scaramucci also hit Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, whom he refused to be compared with because “I’m not trying to suck my own c**k,” the communications director said. The New York Post noted that the president loved the quotes from Scaramucci whom he calls “Mooch.” Axios, however, reminded Scaramucci, also known as a Mini-me of the president because of his fiery character which is similar to Trump’s, may be playing a dangerous game if he goes overboard with his profanity and upstages his boss.
Prior to his clash with Scaramucci, Priebus also had differences with Bannon, the senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the president himself.
