TRUMP PEOPLE: “It’s fair to say that the most important people around President Trump these days are his White House chief of staff John Kelly, his national security adviser John Bolton, his economic council chief Larry Kudlow and his outside legal counsel, Rudy Giuliani. Those four top advisers come from quite different backgrounds, but here’s one thing they have in common: They are contemporaries of the 72-year-old president. The ages of Messrs. Kelly, Bolton, Kudlow and Giuliani are 68, 69, 70 and 74, respectively. The point here isn’t so much the ages of these men atop the Trump world, but rather how they collectively represent a significant change in how the White House is staffed and run. The model isn’t merely different from the one Mr. Trump started with; it’s radically different from the previous norm…As a result, whether you love the president or hate him, this alignment helps explain why you increasingly see the unfiltered Donald Trump, freely using his Twitter feed and public pronouncements to attack special counsel Robert Mueller, Democrats, China, the press. Not by coincidence, this may be the first staff structure with which Mr. Trump, after a year and a half of churn, is really comfortable, White House officials say.”
–Gerald F. Seib, “A Team Comfortable With Letting Trump Be Trump,” The Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2018 10:35 am