Who's next? Here are 9 potential replacements for John Kelly

Leah Millis/Reuters

The White House on Wednesday claimed John Kelly looked disappointed at the NATO summit in Brussels due to the limited breakfast options.

• President Donald Trump's third chief of staff will likely face a strenuous time in the White House amid a key point in the Russia investigations.
• The highly publicized nature of the job - and the potential for a highly publicized fallout - adds more pressure to a potential successor.
• Several candidates have been mentioned as potential successors - some more outside the box than others.

After news broke that John Kelly, the former US Marine Corps general who became President Donald Trump's second chief of staff, would leave the White House by the end of the year, the focus shifted to who could be next.

Trump's first pick, Mike Pence's chief of staff Nick Ayers, already turned the job down (and said he'll leave Pence's side next year), leaving Trump in a more challenging hunt than expected for a replacement.

Here are a few candidates that have been thrown around in the last few days as potential Kelly successors: