Trump's chief of staff of 2 years says he agrees that Trump is bad for the country

• John Kelly, President Donald Trump's longest-serving chief of staff and a retired Marine Corps general, said on Friday that he agreed with former Secretary of Defense James Mattis' assessment that Trump was harming the US.
• In an interview with Anthony Scaramucci, the White House communications director whom Kelly promptly ousted in 2017 upon his promotion to chief of staff, Kelly said that Mattis was right to raise the alarm about Trump sending in active-duty troops to quash protests.
• "The idea that you would unleash American active-duty folks, unless it's an extremist situation ... these are civilian responsibilities," Kelly said, "and we should be very, very careful before we contemplate sending in active-duty military."
• Kelly also alluded to deficiencies in Trump's character. "I think we need to look harder at who we elect," Kelly said, adding, "I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?"

President Donald Trump's longest-serving chief of staff had some choice words about his former boss' performance and character on Friday morning.

"I would agree that the [Constitution] is always being stressed when public officials — and that might be the military, could be police, could be a president — when public officials are coming close to the edge of the rule of law," John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, said in an interview broadcast on YouTube on Friday.

Kelly added that he agreed with former Secretary of Defense James Mattis' blistering assessment that Trump was harming the country.

"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us," Mattis said in a statement published in The Atlantic on Wednesday, adding, "We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

Mattis had long been reluctant to publicly criticize Trump but broke his silence this week after Trump called for the military to "dominate the streets" and had peaceful protesters cleared from the White House perimeter with tear gas so he could have a photo-op at St. John's Church.

Kelly said on Friday that he would have "recommended against it."

He added: "The idea that you would unleash American active-duty folks, unless it's an extremist situation ... these are civilian responsibilities, and we should be very, very careful before we contemplate sending in active-duty military."

Kelly was being interviewed by Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director. One of Kelly's first major decisions upon becoming the White House chief of staff in 2017 was firing Scaramucci. Kelly left the White House in early 2019.

In the interview, Kelly alluded to deficiencies in Trump's character. "I think we need to look harder at who we elect," Kelly said, adding, "I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?"

When asked by Scaramucci whether he agreed with Trump's assertion that he's "a very stable genius," Kelly took a pregnant pause.

"Um, he's — what's a genius? I don't know what that is," Kelly said. "He is — as I say, when I was there working the staff process, more often than not he didn't like the recommendations. More often than not he followed the recommendations of the staff, of the Cabinet.

"But I don't think I should comment on — I'm not qualified to comment on stable or unstable or whatever."