No one knows former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly better than I do. This bitter, bullying coward should be cast into the dustbin of history for once again smearing Donald Trump, just days before the most important election in modern American history.
It may seem reasonable to assume a four-star general would make a good chief of staff, but that assumption is deeply flawed.
Kelly invariably hated those closest to Trump. As chief of staff, he single-handedly turned Trump allies into bitter and viperous enemies.
Four-star generals like Kelly typically reach the top of their profession because they are seen as the sharpest tools in the military shed. Yet in the West Wing, among uber-elite civilians from academia, the corporate world, and Wall Street, Kelly was consistently the dumbest guy in the room.
Regarding Kelly’s leadership, I had to brace myself physically every time his office called, as it inevitably involved some form of threat or abuse. Some leaders inspire, while others attempt to “lead” through intimidation. Kelly was clearly the latter, and I can’t imagine serving under his command in combat.
But Kelly’s flawed leadership wasn’t the most concerning issue. His real failure was his refusal to obey the president, breaking the chain of command.
Kelly, along with Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis, knew better than anyone that the military’s survival depends on strict respect for the chain of command. Yet once Kelly and Mattis reached the pinnacle of civilian power, they acted as if no one, not even the president, was above them.
Kelly routinely subverted the president’s trade agenda. When my former boss instructed Kelly to prepare an executive order to impose steel and aluminum tariffs or tariffs on China, Kelly would consistently delay the process by subjecting it to an extended review.
Kelly employed the same tactic whenever the president attempted to push trading partners like South Korea and Japan to stop screwing us in trade. Both Kelly and Mattis resisted actions that could threaten military alliances with these countries, ignoring the fact that gutting our economy and manufacturing base would ultimately weaken our ability to defend ourselves, let alone any other nation.
Why was Kelly so opposed to Trump’s trade policies? Lacking any economic training, Kelly fell easily into the globalist mindset of West Wing figures like National Economic Council Directors Gary Cohn and Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — all of whom worked to block the president’s trade policies.
Because Kelly had no training in politics, he failed to understand the importance of trade policy in holding the high political ground of blue wall manufacturing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan that Trump had won in 2016.
Because Kelly didn’t know how to “let Trump be Trump,” as Corey Lewandowski famously advised, there was no way “Captain Queeg” Kelly would allow anyone with differing trade policy ideas near the Oval Office.
Kelly regularly eavesdropped on press phone calls and scrutinized overnight phone logs. If someone like me called the president, we were threatened with firing.
Kelly was also incompetent when handling the media. Hiring him was like putting a trucker behind the wheel of a Formula One car. With his thick Boston accent, perpetual lack of a smile, and clear disdain for the media, Kelly was incapable of delivering any effective messaging.
One of Kelly’s most negligent actions was hiding the truth about staff secretary Rob Porter. Porter had two charges of spousal abuse against him and couldn’t get a security clearance, yet he handled highly sensitive national security documents and interacted with the president daily. Kelly’s decision to hide this information should have been grounds for dismissal.
Kelly invariably hated those closest to Trump. As chief of staff, he single-handedly turned Trump allies Omarosa Manigault and Anthony Scaramucci into bitter and viperous enemies thanks to his mistreatment.
My lasting memory of Kelly was him sitting at my right shoulder on December 2, 2018, at the end of a long table in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with President Trump at the center. Across from us sat our counterparts from the Chinese communist trade delegation.
Before the meeting began, a by-then broken Kelly, likely aware of his imminent exit, apologized for treating me poorly. He also admitted he had failed to recognize what George W. Bush might have called the “real evildoers” in the West Wing.
Now, it saddens and infuriates me to see Kelly play the court jester to the Atlantic, of all places. I had hoped that the Biden-Harris administration’s tragic mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, where Kelly’s own son died in combat, might have brought him out of his hate-filled and vengeful derangement. I was wrong. And the cowardly bully Kelly is wrong about Donald John Trump.
Editor’s note: This article is based on Peter Navarro’s memoir, “Taking Back Trump’s America.”
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