The President

John Kelly Wants To Completely Change How Trump Gets His Information

Trump's new chief of staff wants to change how Trump gets his information. But a shake-up like this isn't that unusual.

John Kelly Wants To Completely Change How Trump Gets His Information
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Article by Ethan Weston
SMS
August 25, 2017

President Donald Trump's new chief of staff John Kelly reportedly wants to change how the president gets his information.

Politico reports Kelly and White House staff secretary Rob Porter sent out memos that suggest Kelly wants to vet everything Trump sees before Trump sees it. Multiple aides previously fed Trump info, and sometimes there were competing agendas.

And when Kelly says everything, he means right down to news stories the president consumes.

If true, the organizational shake-up wouldn't be that unusual. Many White Houses start out doing things one way before switching to something else.

Take President Barack Obama's White House, for example. It first used a more adversarial model that brought in rivals to advise him so he got a lot of competing viewpoints from different sources.

But that eventually evolved to a more focused White House where aides learned to stick to their portfolios and contribute to an established agenda.

The Trump White House has developed a reputation for housing competing factions that constantly vie for the president's ear. Managing Trump's information diet could cut down on the more damaging aspects of those feuds.

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This will be a change for Trump. He's preferred to run his White House the way he ran his business: fairly informally, with just a few loyal advisers and family near the top.

But Kelly, as he's said, isn't trying to overtly control what Trump does: The New York Times notes Trump often responds poorly when his aides try to direct his public behavior.

The change might slow down the decision-making process. Politico reports staffers now expect things like executive orders to take weeks instead of days to write and review.

But they hope it will also lead to legislative victories the administration missed under the current system.