According to a bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal last week, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly could be the next departure from the Trump Administration. The Journal reports that Kelly told colleagues he doesn’t intend to stay in the role beyond his one-year anniversary, which is coming up soon on July 31st.
The White House has denied the report. “I spoke to the president who refuted this article. He said it is absolutely not true and that it is fake news,” said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. Interestingly enough, Trump wasn’t as precise in his language when speaking directly on the subject. “We’re getting along very well” he said. Then he added, “Look, at some point, things happen but I will tell you … we have a very good relationship. He’s a wonderful man.”
There have been times in the past that the White House denied rumored resignations that did come to fruition, but that’s only been true in a minority of cases. And this is hardly the first time that there have been rumors about Kelly leaving the White House, with the most recent being back in April when it was reported that Kelly referred to President Trump as an “idiot.”
“I am committed to the president, his agenda, and our country,” Kelly later clarified. “This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”
And before that, there were rumors of a Kelly resignation in February. (RELATED: John Kelly’s Firing May Be Imminent as Story Continues to Unravel.)
Just take a look at the following screenshot to get a feel of how reporting on Kelly’s imminent resignation has been.
In those cases, the media was wrong about Kelly’s departure. But will they be wrong again?
If Kelly departs, he’d be the second White House chief of staff to leave, the first being former RNC chairman Reince Priebus. According to Politico, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers, Congressional Budget Office Director Mick Mulvaney, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are all names being floated as potential Kelly replacements, but then again, we don’t know if these reports are true or not. As usual, they’re relying on anonymous “sources.”
