It has been known for some time that General Kelly was unlikely to stay. It is surprising he lasted so long. The military mind is built on discipline, rules, order and obedience. You would think such qualities ideal for the seat of Executive Government. But the Trump White House is built around Trump. Most Presidents see themselves as smaller than the office they hold. Trump thinks he is bigger and America is lucky to have him. The thing is millions of Americans agree with him.
The political professionals wring their hands at the lack of process and attention to precedent. But Trump does not run on that kind of fuel. He is driven by ego (bigly), intuition, impulse and whim. And an absolute conviction that he is right and he will get his way. When you look at the relative failure of so many aspects of America’s foreign and domestic policies in the last thirty years or so leading to a yawning gap between rich and poor and a fading of the American dream, a disrupter who does it his way, is just what so many Americans in the country’s vast heartlands think they need in their national leader.
And they may be right.