White House spokesman Hogan Gidley suggests that it’s possible Chief of Staff John Kelly might not end up leaving at the first of the year, saying the president and he could make a deal for him to stay longer:
NY POST – Administration spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters that Trump had a short list of five candidates he was considering, repeating what the president had said Thursday, but then added that the commander-in-chief could also decide to “extend” his current deal with Kelly.
“The president said yesterday he has about five names in the hopper. We expect him to make an announcement pretty quickly,” Gidley said.
“Obviously, if the president and the chief of staff make another deal and extend it, they can do that. It’s their prerogative to do so. Right now, currently, John Kelly is expected to leave at the first of the year,” he continued.
Does this mean Kelly is going to stick around? I’m honestly not sure why Gidley would even bring this up if it weren’t a possibility – a strong possibility even. It sounds to me like they are trying to prepare people for Kelly staying.
But of course this will fuel speculation in the media that even among Trump’s ‘about five’ candidates, that no one really wants the job, which has been the media narrative for the last several weeks.
On top of this, just as I am writing this post, news is breaking that Chris Christie doesn’t want the job either:
This makes the suggestion about Kelly sound even more likely…