President Trump removed Anthony Scaramucci as communications director, ending a tumultuous tenure in the West Wing that lasted just 10 days.
Scaramucci was an obstacle to making smooth an unruly White House. Its been said that the new Chief of Staff John Kelly’s biggest challenge in imposing order would be finding a way to deal with Scaramucci.
So, “Scaramucci's quick ouster is being seen as a sign that Kelly could have more power in the chief of staff role than his predecessor, Reince Priebus, ever did.”
Here’s Dan Rather’s take:
Well that didn't take long. Looks like the Mooch is out. At this rate, senior officials in the Trump Administration are dropping faster than reality show contestants, which in truth is what they appear to be.
With a former Marine Corps general as the new Chief of Staff, this is the last chance to bring any order to the White House. But the real problem has not been the aides or the leaks. It has been a president who can't control his speeches... or tweets, who doesn't understand policy, or care to, and who thinks that senators can be bullied like a subcontractor in one of his hotels. There is so much dysfunctional in the West Wing that soap opera writers would blush at the sheer improbability of the storyline.
John Kelly, the new Chief of Staff, is a complicated figure. He successfully led his troops into battle, but the trenches of Washington are a far different topography. And his political experience is thin. He will not have any honeymoon. The knives are out for an administration that seems deeply flawed, and weak. The health care debacle from last week is evidence that panic is spreading throughout the GOP.
Meanwhile, Russia struts, North Korea provokes, and the rest of the world looks at the great leadership vacuum emanating from Washington. And in an office, Robert Mueller and his handpicked superstar lawyers and investigators are poring over documents and talking to people who could make bad headlines for President Trump a whole lot worse.
There's never been anything like this in American history. No U.S. presidency has ever gotten off to such a chaotic beginning. And that means there is no way of predicting how all of this end.
By Jordan Fabian
