(I suspect the reader already knows the answer to the question).
Jonathan Swan at Axios: West Wing wonders, can Kelly fix ‘culture problem’?
One key questions asked is this:
Does Trump let Kelly be a true gatekeeper, in the tradition of effective chiefs of staff? I.e. does all information flow through Kelly, or do certain officials, such as Anthony Scaramucci, Jared and Ivanka, continue to answer only to the President?
I think we all know the answer to that question, and hence the answer to the headline question is “no.”
I think a lot of folks are assuming because Kelly is a retired General that that means he can come in and whip everyone into shape. There is no particular reason to think this, if anything because the White House is not a military unit. More importantly, the culture of the White House that we are observing is not the function of Reince Priebus, it is a function of Donald Trump, who remains in office.
The following, by the way, also isn’t going to happen:
Under Kelly, do factional enemies in the West Wing put aside their hatreds and, while they’ll never agree on policy, at least agree to stop trying to annihilate each other?
