President Donald Trump is looking to get rid of his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, since his new best friend Bill Shine entered the White House a week ago, according to a report from Vanity Fair.
“Trump absolutely loves the guy,” a Republican close to Trump said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
President Trump brought on the former Fox News executive as his assistant to the deputy chief of staff for communications. Instead of firing Kelly on the spot, President Trump is hoping that Shine's increasing presence in the White House will force Kelly to quit.
According to a source close to the White House, Kelly and Shine have bumped heads.
“They’ve basically stopped telling Kelly when meetings are. People leave him off the calendar,” an administration official told Vanity Fair. “When he finds out, he storms into the room and is like, ‘What’s going on?’”
Kelly hasn't been shy about his distaste for working at the White House and once called it a "miserable place to work."
“Trump is too chickensh*t to fire Kelly himself,” a source told Vanity Fair. President Trump has used this method in the past. “This is a more subtle version of Scaramucci,” an outside adviser to the White House said.
Shine also made comments about other White House staff members. He said Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was just “O.K.,” but hopes to bring in someone with “more energy.”
The source said Shine's hiring was to benefit Fox News Host Sean Hannity. They timed President Trump's Supreme Court announcement to start at the top of Hannity's show. “Everyone at the White House knew this was about Sean’s ratings," the source said.
The source concluded by saying that President Trump is really "fed up" with Kelly.