Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
- Outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly has been reportedly furious with President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump.
- Kelly reportedly took notes about their activities and requests, and kept them on his desk in full view of staffers, a senior White House official said in a New York Times report published on Monday.
- Kelly, who reportedly called Trump an "idiot" in private and described the White House as "a miserable place to work," is believed to have floated the idea of resigning during his tenure.
- Despite numerous reports of a rift between the Trumps and Kelly, Kushner praised Kelly during an interview with Fox News on Monday night.
Outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly is reportedly furious with President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump - so much so that he took notes about their activities and requests, and kept them on his desk in full view, a senior White House official said to The New York Times.
Kelly is a former Marine Corps four-star general who was brought into what had been a turbulent White House under Trump, following the ouster of the president's previous chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
Kelly was previously reported to have butted heads with Kushner and Ivanka, both of whom are senior advisers to Trump. He has reportedly tried to curb freewheeling access to the Oval Office, including from Ivanka and Kushner.
His methods were sometimes unpopular; some White House officials likened Ivanka and Kushner's feud with Kelly to a "death match."
"Javanka and Kelly are locked in a death match," a White House official told Axios in March, referring to a nickname for Kushner and Ivanka. "Two enter. Only one survives."
Trump's relationship with Kelly was equally troubled by some accounts. After months of speculation, Trump announced on Saturday that Kelly would leave his administration by the end of the year.
Kelly, who reportedly called Trump an "idiot" in private and described the White House as "a miserable place to work," is believed to have floated the idea of resigning.
Following the deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Kelly was reportedly furious at Trump's tepid response, and said he would have taken a "resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times," according to sources in journalist Bob Woodward's White House tell-all, "Fear: Trump in the White House."
Kushner delivered some conciliatory remarks on Kelly during an appearance with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday night, saying Kelly "has served this country for over forty years."
"And over the last two years in particular, he's been very helpful to the president towards implementing a lot of the most important parts of his successful agenda," Kushner said.
Trump has yet to announce who will replace Kelly.
Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, was offered the job but declined on Sunday, citing his decision to return to his home state of Georgia with his wife and children.
Trump will reportedly not consult Kelly on his replacement, people familiar with the situation told The Times.