Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly sat down with NPR yesterday for an exclusive interview where he explained a few things about his job and gave his opinion on other issues like the Russia probe, the coming N. Korea summit, and much more:
In the interview Kelly explains how frustrating it is to read stories in media about himself or others at the White House:
“I mean there’s times of great frustration, mostly because of the stories I’ve read about myself or others that I think the world of which is just about everyone that works at the complex,” Kelly told NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
He added: “I wonder if it’s worth it to be subjected to that. But then I grow up and suck it up.”
Kelly does have one regret about working there…
Kelly said his only regret in taking the job of helping run the White House staff is that he didn’t arrive there sooner.
“In retrospect, I wish I had been here from day one,” Kelly told NPR. “I think in some cases in terms of staffing or serving the president that first six months was pretty chaotic and there were people some people hired that maybe shouldn’t have.”
“It’s not that things were a disaster that first six months but I believe they could have been better,” he added. It was clear from his “perch” as secretary of homeland security, he said, “that the White House was less organized than our president deserved.”
You should listen to the full interview above, but here are a few other highlights I thought you’d be interested in:
On whether he believes the Russia investigation is a “witch hunt,” as Trump often calls it
Something that has gone on this long without any real meat on the bone, it suggests to me that there is nothing there, relative to our president.
On whether the Russia probe is a cloud hanging over this White House
It may not be a cloud but certainly the president is, you know, somewhat embarrassed, frankly. When world leaders come in, it’s kind of like you know Bibi Netanyahu is here and he who’s under investigation himself and it’s like, you know, you walk in and you know the first couple of minutes of every conversation might revolve around that kind of thing.
Regarding the upcoming summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, when asked how the president can be sure he’s not being tricked
Yeah — not sure. But this president’s got his eyes wide open. Believe me, the president really wants this to work. We talk fairly frequently about nuclear weapons and he’s just astounded that the United States, that the human race has got itself into this dilemma with all of these nuclear weapons and as he says — to help North Korea give up its nuclear program and its missile program would be a wonderful thing. … I know he won’t fall for it in the same way that past presidents have, that get strung along, strung along lifting sanctions, giving them money, and get nothing for it.