IMMIGRATION/JOHN KELLY/STEVE BANNON/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is emerging from his usual behind-the-scenes role to become one of the president’s chief conservative anchors on the immigration issue, a spot once occupied by former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
While Mr. Kelly drew the president’s ire last week after suggesting his boss’s campaign promises were uninformed and had ‘evolved,’ he also helped scuttle a bipartisan Senate deal and made the phone call that ended immigration negotiations on Friday. That paved the way for the partial government shutdown, as Democrats have tied their support for a government-spending bill to an extension of an Obama -era immigration program that President Donald Trump ended last year…
When Mr. Trump installed Mr. Kelly as his chief of staff in August, the pairing struck Washington insiders as an odd fit: the free-wheeling real-estate executive with a chaotic management style and a four-star Marine general who eschews politics and spent a lifetime following chain of command.
But time has revealed similarities between men, White House aides said. They argue like brothers, with intense bursts of debate, only to sort things out moments later, and they both hold hard-line views in the immigration debate, according to people familiar with them. The White House and Mr. Kelly didn’t respond to requests for comment.”
-Michael C. Bender, “John Kelly Forges Role as Immigration Hard-Liner,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 21, 2018 06:29pm