President Donald Trump has named retired Gen. John Kelly as the new White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus in the role.

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"I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration," Trump said in a series of tweets Friday afternoon.

I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

In a statement later on Friday, Priebus said it "has been one of the greatest honors of my life to serve this President and our country."

"I want to thank the President for giving me this very special opportunity," the statement continued. "I will continue to serve as a strong supporter of the President's agenda and policies. I can't think of a better person than General John Kelly to succeed me and I wish him God's blessings and great success."

Senior White House officials with direct knowledge of the changes happening in the West Wing said the president told Priebus two weeks ago he wanted to make a change.

Priebus spoke to CNN about two hours after the announcement was made, and he repeatedly said that he resigned but noted that the president wanted to go in a different direction.

“It was something I think the White House needs. I think it’s healthy, and I support him in it,” Priebus said of the shift.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Friday night, Priebus said he spoke with Trump about who would be his successor.

“We had a good talk yesterday. I resigned, he accepted it,” he said. “And we started working together and talking quite a few times about who would be a great pick to come in here and be the chief of staff, and I can't think of anyone better than a four-star general, John Kelly.”

Priebus added that he feels “hitting a reset button” is “a good thing.” He declined to comment on any controversy surrounding incoming White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.

“It's just getting in the mud, and I think the palace intrigue stuff is annoying, and I think it's a distraction and it takes away from the president's agenda,” he said.

Kelly has already been working in the Trump administration, serving as the secretary of homeland security.

He released a statement thanking "the tremendous men and women of DHS."

"When I left the Marines, I never thought I would find as committed, as professional, as patriotic a group of individuals. I was wrong. You accomplish great things everyday defending our nation and I know your exceptional work will continue," Kelly said.

Susan Walsh/AP

Kelly added that he is "honored to be asked to serve" as the president's chief of staff.

Kelly will start as chief of staff on Monday morning and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that a Cabinet meeting will follow his swearing-in.

Trump praised Kelly just this afternoon at an event with law enforcement officials on Long Island in New York.

Trump said Kelly "has done an incredible job of secretary of homeland security. Incredible. One of our real stars. Truly one of our stars. John Kelly is one of our great stars."

Trump thanked him for "his service" in a tweet.

I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017

After walking off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Trump briefly spoke to reporters.

"Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job. General Kelly has been a star. Done an incredible job thus far. Respected by everybody. A great, great American. Respected by everybody. Reince Priebus [is] a good man," Trump said.

Trump has felt his team needed a chief of staff who could help push his agenda forward and get the West Wing in shape. After that conversation, the president began weighing his options and ultimately decided on his first choice – Kelly – the officials told ABC News.

The president’s plan was to make this change around the congressional recess with the goal of having a vacation period to get things in shape heading into the fall, the officials said, noting that the fact that new communications director Anthony Scaramucci has joined the team is not connected to Priebus leaving.

As one source put it, “This was a long time coming, period.”

In spite of the officials' comments, the personnel shift comes amid growing acrimony inside the White House, which was made public most clearly when Scaramucci called a reporter for The New Yorker and gave a series of expletive-ridden criticisms of Priebus, among others.

"Reince Priebus — if you want to leak something — he’ll be asked to resign very shortly," Scaramucci told reporter Ryan Lizza, according to The New Yorker article.

"Reince is a f------ paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac," Scaramucci said, the article states.

The day before The New Yorker article was published, Scaramucci posted a tweet, which he later deleted, where he tagged Priebus and wrote that he would be contacting the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate leaking.

Priebus was one of the members of Trump's senior staff who had the most experience working in Washington politics, having previously served as the Republican National Committee chairman before joining the Trump team during the transition.

He had ties to key members of the Republican Party, like House Speaker and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan, but his support base within the White House is believed to have eroded in recent weeks. Katie Walsh, who served as Priebus' deputy chief of staff at the White House, left in March, and on July 21, press secretary Sean Spicer resigned. Both Walsh and Spicer worked with Priebus at the RNC.</s>Mr. Bannon also helped bring Mr. Kelly into the administration during the transition, and was among those who supported his move to chief of staff, an official familiar with his position said.

Mr. Priebus’s departure was announced 15 hours after the president’s signature drive to repeal his predecessor’s health care program collapsed on the Senate floor and a day after an ugly feud with Mr. Scaramucci erupted in a public airing of the deep animosities plaguing the White House. Mr. Priebus had collaborated with his ally, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, on health care and pushed a bill through the House only to watch it crater in the upper chamber.

“My view is Reince was very well liked by the president, but Donald Trump is a guy who’s all about results, and he will always be looking not only at everyone around him and their results, but his own results,” said Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax Media and a friend of the president’s. “I think he’s taking stock and seeing that this health care thing that was promised to him by Reince and Paul Ryan was not properly developed. In my view, he’s a disappointed customer.”

Mr. Priebus, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, represented the establishment that Mr. Trump had run against and never won the president’s full confidence nor was granted the authority to impose a working organizational structure on a West Wing that included multiple power centers, including the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Always seeming to be on the edge, Mr. Priebus had hoped to last a full year, but in the end no other White House chief of staff has been forced out after such a short tenure.

Mr. Kushner soured on Mr. Priebus, partly because of what he viewed as the shortcomings of Sean Spicer, an ally of Mr. Priebus’s who was the White House press secretary until last week. Other top aides bristled at Mr. Priebus’s demeanor or suspected that he was undermining them, while an alliance of convenience with Mr. Bannon seemed to fade in recent weeks.

Mr. Trump signaled Mr. Priebus’s fate a week ago by hiring Mr. Scaramucci over the chief of staff’s objections. Mr. Priebus had blocked Mr. Scaramucci from joining the White House staff for six months, and Mr. Spicer resigned in protest.

Mr. Priebus and Mr. Spicer had told the president that they believed Mr. Scaramucci, a gregarious but edgy hedge fund manager and fund-raiser, lacked the required political experience and organizational skills. In the end, however, those warnings fell on deaf ears and, adding insult to injury, Mr. Scaramucci made clear when he was hired that he reported not to Mr. Priebus, but directly to the president.</s>First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Are the wheels coming off Trump’s 'fine-tuned machine'?

Accusations of incompetency can undermine even the most talented of politicians. Just ask George W. Bush (Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina) or Barack Obama (HealthCare.Gov).

But while the events and news over the last 24 hours seem like just another day for the Trump White House, they expose a level of dysfunction and chaos that could leave a lasting mark for a president who said back in February that he was running a “fine-tuned machine.” Consider:
• The White House couldn’t say what happens to the transgender Americans who are currently serving in the U.S. military after Trump announced that they couldn’t serve in any capacity. (“That’s something that the Department of Defense and the White House will have to work together,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.)
• The Defense Department was so caught off guard by the announcement that the previous policy — allowing transgender military members to serve openly — is STILL on its website.
• For a week, top administration officials have tried to talk President Trump down from his public criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the New York Times reports. And the Washington Post adds that the president has discussed the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment.
• The Alaska Dispatch News says that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Alaska’s two senators to warn them that Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s “no” votes on health care had put the state’s future with the administration in jeopardy. ("I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said regarding Zinke’s call.
• And new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci took to Twitter last night to say he was contacting the FBI because his financial-disclosure form was leaked — and he strikingly tagged White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in the tweet. But the Politico reporter who wrote about Scaramucci’s form said it was publicly available from the Export-Import Bank, where Scaramucci previously worked. (On CNN this morning, Scaramucci again suggested Priebus is leaking, saying: “I don't know if the relationship with Reince is reparable.”

The whole point of electing a businessman to become president was expecting someone to EFFECTIVELY run the government. But what happens when that businessman can’t run the government? That’s the significant long-term danger for Trump and his administration.

Don’t be surprised if Interior Secretary Zinke’s calls launch an inspector general investigation

As for that news from Alaska — that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reportedly threatened that Sen. Murkowski’s “no” votes could have consequences for the state — it likely will launch, at a minimum, an inspector general investigation. It’s not insignificant that the state’s other senator, Dan Sullivan, talked to Alaska media about the threat. Sullivan has been a reliable “yes” vote for Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

'No majority for replace, no majority for repeal. On to the Mystery Plan'

Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday once again voted down a measure to repeal Obamacare. NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell: “Senate Republicans delivered another blow in their effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act when they failed to pass a repeal of the Obama-era law on Wednesday afternoon. The vote, which is one of many expected during the ongoing health care debate, only garnered the support of 45 Republicans, short of the 50-votes necessary. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Susan Collins, R-Maine, Dean Heller, R-Nev., and John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and surprisingly Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chair of the Senate Health Committee, joined all Democrats in voting against it. The defeat eliminates the chances of Congress sending a nearly-full repeal of the law to President Donald Trump to sign.”

As NBC’s Benjy Sarlin tweeted, “No majority for replace, no majority for repeal. On to the Mystery Plan” — that is, the “Skinny Repeal.” But here’s the thing: No on still knows, publicly at least, what that legislation actually entails. And the expectation is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will offer up this “Skinny Repeal” as one of the last votes.

Health care opponents have spent $15 million on ads opposing the Senate GOP legislation, while supporters haven’t spent a dime

As for the ad spending in the health-care fight, here’s what one of us has written: “The Republican senators whose votes are crucial to the fate of health care in America have faced a $15 million barrage of TV advertising from outside groups opposing the GOP legislation — and no air cover from any group backing the bills.

According to ad-buying tracker Advertising Analytics, groups opposing the GOP health care push have spent $14.8 million since May on TV ads targeting 13 key senators, with even more ad buys rolling in daily as the debate in the Senate reaches fever pitch. No groups have run ads in those states in support of the ever-evolving Republican legislation to repeal and replace parts or all of Obamacare.”

When Orrin Hatch is blasting the administration’s transgender-military announcement, you know the politics have shifted on this issue

Finally, it is striking how much blowback the Trump White House received on its transgender-military policy — from conservative Republicans. “I don’t think we should be discriminating against anyone,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement. “Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.” When the Orrin Hatches are saying this, you REALLY know the political earth has moved on this topic.</s>Додайте цей твіт на свій веб-сайт, скопіювавши код, наведений нижче. Дізнатися більше

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Ескіз</s>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has selected John Kelly as his new White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus.

“I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American….” Trump tweeted.

This story is breaking and will be updated.</s>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has selected Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as his new White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus.

“I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American… and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration,” Trump tweeted.

The move was announced just after Air Force One landed at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington Friday.

“Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters. “General Kelly has been a star, done an incredible job thus far, respected by everybody. He’s a great great American. Reince is a good man.”

The move followed months of on-again, off-again speculation that Priebus would soon be ousted from an administration where he has consistently drawn heavy criticism for failing to stem the flow of leaks and struggled to impose a sense of order in a chaotic White House beset by controversies.

Priebus, who was brought on by the outsider President in large part because of his Washington relationships, also wound up carrying a hefty share of the blame for the White House’s legislative stumbles.

The former Republican National Committee chairman faced a difficult task from the outset as he attempted to wrangle a hodgepodge of rival staff factions divided by ideology and allegiance, his influence supplanted by several other top advisers — including the President’s own kin — who reported directly to Trump and not to the chief of staff.

Priebus’ appointment was announced alongside Steve Bannon’s, the former Breitbart editor in chief who was appointed chief strategist. The President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was named senior adviser and soon thereafter his wife — the President’s eldest daughter — Ivanka Trump was as well.

But it was the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci to communications director last Friday that set off Priebus’ final unraveling. Within days of his appointment, Scaramucci, who was added to the roster of top aides who circumvent the chief of staff and report directly to the President, took to the airwaves and suggested Priebus was responsible for leaks coming out of the White House. He leveled those charges on CNN moments after speaking with Trump.

Priebus had worked against Scaramucci joining the administration when the New York hedge fund manager was first considered for an administration post and while the two attempted to put on a show of unity in Scaramucci’s first days at the White House, it quickly became clear the two men would continue to be at odds with each other.

Priebus, a Wisconsin native, joined the administration as chief of staff after a nearly six-year tenure as chairman of the RNC, the final months of which he spent in a dual role as a top adviser to Trump’s campaign.

Priebus was tapped for the post at the urging of top congressional Republicans — including House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Wisconsinite — who advised Trump that he needed a Washington insider to help him shepherd his legislative agenda. That left Priebus with the blame for many of the administration’s legislative stumbles, including during the arduous attempts at passing a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare — which Priebus had advised Trump to make his first legislative priority, promising him swift victory.

The pick was unexpected for many in the Trump campaign who saw Priebus as the embodiment of the Washington Republican establishment Trump had defeated in the primaries, and Trump and Priebus did not always see eye-to eye.

Still, Priebus helped Trump bridge the divide with many establishment Republicans during the general election and into Trump’s tenure as president, serving as a key bridge between the outsider President and the insider politics he found himself at the center of.

Priebus was just the latest former RNC official to leave the administration, following the departure of White House press secretary Sean Spicer — who resigned in protest over Scaramucci’s hire — and the ouster of deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh, a key Priebus ally who exited the administration after just two months on the job.</s>Donald Trump has fired Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff and replaced him with Homeland Security secretary John Kelly, the president announced on Twitter on Friday.

The president tweeted: “I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a great American … and a great leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my administration.”

The dismissal of Priebus came as little surprise after he was the subject of a furious, foul-mouthed attack by new communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who claimed he would be asked to resign imminently.</s>Another one bites the dust! Donald Trump is making even more changes to his administration.

The Commander in Chief, 71, has ousted Chief of Staff Reince Priebus from his team on Friday, July 28, replacing the former GOP Chairman with the sitting Homeland Security Secretary, John Kelly.

Trump took to Twitter to announce his decision. “I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff,” he wrote. “He is a Great American and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration.”

The president concluded his remarks by wishing Priebus well: “I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I proud of him!” He did not provide a reason for firing Priebus.

Reince Priebus told CNN that he resigned on Thursday, July 27, after a productive conversation with Trump. "This is about the president. This is about moving his agenda forward. I think he's made a smart decision with General Kelly, and I think he's going to do a great job and I'm looking forward to the future."

Priebus also added that there is no "ill will" over his resignation. "I'm always going to be a Trump fan. I'm on team Trump, and I look forward to helping him achieve his goals and his agenda for the American people," he said.

The news comes one week after Anthony Scaramucci was brought on as Communications Director. According to reports, Priebus opposed the appointment, as did Sean Spicer, who then resigned as press secretary in what many deemed to be an act of protest. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has since been appointed as Spicer's successor.

Scaramucci made headlines earlier this week for questioning whether Priebus was behind several recent White House leaks. “Reince Priebus — if you want to leak something — he’ll be asked to leave very shortly,” the latest addition to Trump’s administration said in an explosive phone conversation with a New Yorker reporter.

In May, Trump also fired James Comey as FBI director.

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For the latest celebrity entertainment, news and lifestyle videos, subscribe to Us Weekly's YouTube Page!</s>President Donald Trump has removed Wisconsin native Reince Priebus as his White House Chief of Staff, replacing him with retired U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly, who had been serving as the Secretary of Homeland Security.

President Donald Trump has removed Wisconsin native Reince Priebus as his White House Chief of Staff, replacing him with retired U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly, who had been serving as the Secretary of Homeland Security.

MADISON (WKOW) --- The political world in Wisconsin and the rest of the country is coming to grips with a shocking move out of Washington Friday -- the removal of Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff.

The news came via twitter, when President Donald Trump announced that he named Homeland Security Secretary General John Kelly as his new chief of staff.

"I think the president wanted to go a different direction. I support him in that. Like I said a couple weeks ago, I said the president has a right to change directions. A president has a right to hit a reset button. I think it is a good time to hit the reset button. I think he was right to hit the reset button, and I think it was something that I think the White House needs. I think it's healthy. And I support him in it," Priebus said.

The move comes after a tumultuous couple of days, that saw incoming communications director Anthony Scaramucci publicly blast Priebus over "leaked" information.

The long-time Kenosha resident said he resigned Thursday and that the president included him in choosing a successor.

"I'm doing great. I just had a good conversation with General Kelly and the president, and I think you may know I've been, obviously, talking to the president for a few days about this. And formally, I ultimately resigned yesterday. And, you know, the president was great. He wanted to include me in figuring out how and who would be a great successor and a chief of staff," Priebus said.

Trump had this to say about his former chief-of-staff during a stop in New York Friday.

"Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job. General Kelly has been a star, done an incredible job thus far, respected by everybody. He's a great, great American. Reince Priebus is a good man. Thank you very much."

House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted his thanks to Priebus, as well as his support for General Kelly.

“Reince Priebus has left it all out on the field, for our party and our country. Here is a guy from Kenosha, Wisconsin who revitalized the Republican National Committee and became White House chief of staff. He has served the president and the American people capably and passionately. He has achieved so much, and he has done it all with class. I could not be more proud to call Reince a dear friend,” Ryan said in a statement.

"I congratulate Secretary Kelly on his appointment, and look forward to working with him to advance our agenda."

"Reince Priebus is a good friend. I thank him for his service and wish him the best of luck going forward. Secretary Kelly is an outstanding leader who has served his country honorably and I know he will do an excellent job at the White House."

Priebus said he thinks Kelly is a good choice for the job.

During an interview, Priebus said he was not the White House leaker and refused to address earlier remarks made by Scaramucci.

Priebus was named chief of staff in November shortly after Trump won the election. He said he'll be working on a transition for a couple of weeks with General Kelly, starting on Monday.</s>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Friday he was appointing Homeland Security head John Kelly to be White House chief of staff, ending the tumultuous six-month tenure of Reince Priebus.

After months of speculation about Priebus’ fate, Trump tweeted the decision just as he landed in Washington after an event in New York in which he lavishly praised Kelly’s performance at Homeland Security.

Priebus, the former Republican National Committee head, was the frequent target of rumours about his job security, the victim of a long whisper campaign by Trump allies and the subject of a remarkable public rebuke this week by the new White House communications director.

Trump’s announcement on Twitter: “I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American ... and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration.”

He also saluted Priebus, the chief of staff he had just pushed out.

“I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!”

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, Trump said: “Reince is a good man. John Kelly will do a fantastic job.”

Priebus never could bring a semblance of order to the team of in-fighting rivals that populate Trump’s West Wing, and questions about his future have long swirled around the office. Those questions sharply escalated this week with the arrival of Anthony Scaramucci, the hard-charging communications director who was hired over Priebus’ objections.

Priebus’ already tense relationship with Scaramucci took a darker turn over the past two days when the communications chief suggested in a late-night tweet that Priebus was one of the “leakers” that Trump has railed against. The New Yorker published an interview Thursday in which Scaramucci called Priebus, amid an avalanche of vulgarity, a “paranoid schizophrenic”

Both Scaramucci and Priebus travelled to New York’s Long Island with Trump on Friday for an event where the president highlighted efforts to crack down on the gang MS-13. Priebus took the return flight to Washington, his fate sealed in the tweets that were sent by the president just as he stepped off the plane. Priebus did not respond to reporters’ shouted questions.

From day one, Priebus’ power has been limited compared with past officials with his title. In a highly unusual arrangement, Trump said at the outset that Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon would serve as “equal partners” in implementing his agenda.

Priebus, who hails from Wisconsin and has deep ties House Speaker Paul Ryan, had grown increasingly isolated in the White House, as past Republican National Committee colleagues and other allies have left or been pushed out of the West Wing. Those who have departed include former deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh, outgoing press secretary Sean Spicer and press aide Michael Short.

Scaramucci was the latest top aide to be granted a direct line to Trump, and it became increasingly unclear who actually reported to Priebus.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly will be White House Chief of Staff, replacing Reince Priebus.