Kelly agrees to remain chief of staff until 2020 at Trump's request



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WASHINGTON – Chief of Staff of the White House

John Kelly

told staff on Monday that the president

Asset

He had asked her to stay at his post at the end of the 2020 election, White House officials said, a demand that comes as a result of the easing of tensions between the two countries. two men in recent months.

Kelly told the staff that he accepted the president's request, said one of the officials.

million. Kelly, who celebrated his first birthday as chief of staff Monday, should have left the White House sometime this summer.

Trump in recent months has consulted with advisers on who he should exploit as his next chief of staff, considering as possible successors

Nick Ayers,

who is the deputy chief of staff of the vice president

Mike Pence,

and

Mick Mulvaney,

who heads the Office of Management and Budget and serves as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

If Mr. Kelly stays at his post until 2020, he will be among the most senior White House chiefs of staff in the history of the United States. .

Andy Card,

chief of staff under the former president

George W. Bush,

stayed in his job for a little over five years. The oldest chief of staff in the history of the United States is

John Steelman,

who spent six years in the post under the presidency

Harry Truman.

A White House official warned that although the plan is for Mr. Kelly to remain in his post until 2020, unforeseen circumstances could cause the plan to change.

The President has offered conflicting views in recent months about how long he sees Mr. Kelly staying at work. After the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Trump was consulting with advisers on Kelly's successors, a White House spokesman called the report "false news" and said Mr. Trump ] million. Trump, later asked the same day if Mr. Kelly was leaving the White House, replied, "That I do not know."

million. Kelly, a 68-year-old retired naval general, took office with the mandate of imposing discipline in a west wing where many councilors had easy access to the president and felt free to pursue political initiatives that have not been fully verified. But in recent months, Kelly's grip on West Wing operations has been relaxed. Some of the senior assistants now report directly to the President, which is a departure from the earlier practice that Mr. Kelly was the principal guardian of the Oval Office

. Kelly had been telling his colleagues over the last few months that he had not intended to stay past his one year mark.

Tensions between the president and Mr. Kelly seem to have diminished in recent months. when Trump privately criticized his chief of staff for handling charges of domestic assault against the former staff secretary

Rob Porter,

who resigned in February after posting graphic photos of the alleged abuse.

Kelly first defended Mr. Porter, the guarantor of his integrity publicly and privately. In his own public comments on this, Mr. Trump emphasized Mr. Porter's denial of abuse without taking care of how his staff handled the case.

Trump Monday tweeted a photo of himself with Mr. Kelly and wrote, "Congratulations to General John Kelly.Today, we are celebrating his first full year as @WhiteHouse's Chief of Staff! "

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected], Byron Tau at [email protected] and Peter Nicholas at [email protected]

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