chart." He added, "As far as I know, anybody who walked down the hall walked in (to the Oval Office)." Clinton, whose approval ratings were at one time about as bad as Trump's, went on to an easy re-election.

As to Trump's changing of White House personnel, President Barack Obama, over his two terms, had five chiefs of staff. One "interim" chief of staff lasted less time than did Reince Priebus. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, two-term presidents, had four each.

Obama had four secretaries of Defense, more than Clinton and Reagan. In the case of Obama's first three, upon departure, they had significant policy differences with the boss.

Panetta, Obama's second secretary of Defense, complained about what he considered Obama's poor leadership, one that "avoids the battle, complains and missesopportunities." On Iraq, Panetta felt that Obama "kind of lost his way" when he pulled out all the troops over Panetta's objection.

Obama declared a "red line" in Syria, that the U.S. would strike if Syria used chemical weapons. Panetta criticized Obama's flip-flop, which left the decision to Congress, which, Panetta says, was, "as he well knew, an almost certain way to scotch any action." This hurt America's credibility, Panetta said, because "the power of the United States rests on its word, and clear signals are important both to deter adventurism and to reassure allies that we can be counted on."

On Obama's deliberation over whether to intervene in Libya, Robert Gates, his first secretary of defense, a holdover from the George W. Bush administration, wrote: "I was running out