President Donald Trump was reportedly not amused on Friday by a remark from his chief of staff, John Kelly, who joked that he got the White House gig as punishment from God.
Speaking to employees at the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, the embattled Kelly told the crowd, ‘I miss every one of you every day.’
‘Truly, six months, the last thing I wanted to do was walk away from one of the great honors of my life, being the secretary of Homeland Security, but I did something wrong and God punished me, I guess,’ Kelly said.
It was widely understood that the remark was made in jest, but the president took offense, according to CBS News.
Trump believes Kelly ought to be more appreciative of the powers and responsibilities that the president gave him when he hired him to be chief of staff, CBS News reported.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly appeared Thursday at an event for Department of Homeland Security secretaries. There he said God punished him, which is how he ended up at the White House instead
When John Kelly (right) was asked if he had any regrets from his time at the DHS, the current DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (left) interjected and answered for him: ‘to stay’
When Kelly was asked during the program if he had any regrets, the current occupant of the job, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen interjected with an answer: ‘to stay.’
The comment got laughs from the crowd.
‘I wish I had worked harder in the six months I had the job to … not only protect the men and women that get beat up so badly every day but to really advertise in a much more effective way how good you are,’ Kelly said. ‘You take the face shots every single day from people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about or have an agenda against you. I did the best I could.’
Speaking to CNN on the way in to the event – which was to mark the anniversary of the agency with the current and former secretaries – Kelly said things were ‘pretty good’ at the White House.
‘Too much work, too hard,’ he said. ‘We’re all doing the Lord’s work, though,’ an upbeat Kelly said.
Kelly’s demeanor stood in contrast to the reported bad morale felt by his underlings, according to former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who went on a TV blitz Thursday morning in order to get that message to President Trump.
‘Does the president want to lose everyone because of General Jackass?’ Scaramucci asked Bloomberg Politics, implying that Kelly’s iron rule helped guide Communications Director Hope Hicks out the door.
The remark by Kelly did not sit well with President Donald Trump, who reportedly believes the chief of staff should be grateful for the responsibilities he was given
Scaramucci predicted there would be more to follow.
News of Hicks’ forthcoming departure broke Wednesday.
The day before, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s spokesman, Josh Raffel, confirmed he was out, planning to head back to New York City in the next two months.
Then, Thursday afternoon, after the conclusion of the DHS event, NBC News reported that Kelly, along with Defense Secretary James Mattis, were forcing President Trump’s second National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster out.
McMaster had replaced Trump’s original pick for the job, Michael Flynn, who was only the job for 24 days. Flynn has since been indicted.
Kelly was also central to the drama over Kushner’s security clearance, which was downgraded from ‘top secret’ to ‘secret’ since the president’s son-in-law had never passed the FBI’s background check.
Kushner had been looking at government secrets on an interim security clearance.
Trump made Kelly decide what to do about interim clearances in the aftermath of the Rob Porter scandal, in which the FBI had known about allegations of spousal abuse against the now ex-staff secretary, yet Porter could still see the nation’s top secrets.
Beyond Kushner, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that about 30 White House staffers’ clearances were affected.
Adding to all the other Kelly drama, CNN reported this week that the chief of staff had some negative things to say about the president’s daughter Ivanka, one of Trump’s top White House advisers.
She’s ‘playing government’ he reportedly said privately, calling one of her issue areas, the child tax credit, a ‘pet project.’