WASHINGTON (AP) – Six months into his presidency, Donald Trump is saddled with a stalled agenda, a West Wing that resembles a viper’s nest, a pile of investigations and a Republican Party that is starting to break away.
Trump on Friday indirectly acknowledged the troubled state of his unconventional White House, abruptly replacing his chief of staff with hard-nosed retired Gen. John Kelly, until now the president’s Homeland Security secretary. Kelly will take the desk of Reince Priebus, a Republican operative who was skeptical of Trump’s electoral prospects last year and ultimately came to be viewed by the president as weak and ineffective.
Can Kelly pull things together? Much of his success will depend on factors outside his control, including whether Trump’s squabbling staff is willing to put aside the rivalries that have sowed disorder in the West Wing and complicated any efforts to enact policy. But no question looms larger than this: Can Kelly do what Priebus couldn’t? Can he curb the president’s own penchant for drama and unpredictability, and his tendency to focus more on settling scores than promoting a policy agenda?
No other aide or adviser has been successful on that front. As a candidate – and now as president – Trump has cycled through a cast of campaign chiefs and political advisers but has remained easily distracted by his personal interests and only loosely tethered to any policy plans.
“Trump has spent a lot of his political capital on nothing but defending his own reputation,” Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said of Trump’s first six months in office. “There is no sustained strategy; his attention seems to shift with whatever is leading cable news at that moment.”