Remember the scene in “Dr. Strangelove” where General Buck Turgidson was “in the powderoom” as his mistress delicately put it when she answered the hot line from the White House? White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, ostensibly “one of the adults in the room,” shocked a group of reporters who had gathered at the White House Friday for an off the record meeting with Kelly about an impending administration staff purge that was rumored, when he said the same thing about Rex Tillerson. Daily Beast:
According to those sources, Kelly recounted a very awkward conversation with Tillerson during which he informed the secretary that President Donald Trump would very likely soon fire him. The awkwardness was less a result of the contents of the conversation than its setting.
Tillerson, Kelly told the room, was suffering from a stomach bug during a diplomatic swing through Africa, and was using a toilet when Kelly broke the news to him.
Sources were stunned that, even in an off-record setting, Kelly would say this—to a room filled with White House officials and political reporters—about Tillerson, who does not officially leave the State Department until the end of the month.
Is that an image you could have lived without? And that wasn’t all.
It wasn't Kelly's only off color comment at the meeting. According to an Axios report, he also joked about incoming chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow’s former cocaine habit. Kudlow, who has been up front about his past drug problems, has been sober for 23 years. Axios also reported that Kelly said in the meeting that Trump himself was likely contributing to rumors and stories regarding chaos at the cabinet and senior staff level.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Kelly and Trump had reached a temporary truce, since it’s been rumored that Kelly was
jarred by the treatment of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom the president fired by tweet on Tuesday morning. Mr. Kelly suggested to colleagues that he may be the next to be pushed out of the White House. Mr. Kelly’s cryptic comments left several White House staffers with the impression that Mr. Kelly would force the issue with the president, and that they should start looking for new jobs, too.
It’s ironic that Kelly fired Anthony Scaramucci for not knowing where the line was drawn between candor and vulgarity. One more time, the pot doesn’t know what color to call the kettle in Trump World.