JOHN KELLY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump’s Saturday [12-8-18] confirmation that chief of staff John Kelly will soon leave the White House signaled more than the end of a tortured relationship. It was the latest sign of Trump’s singular focus on his 2020 re-election campaign. Trump is likely to replace Kelly — a former Marine General who brought little political experience to the West Wing — with Nick Ayers, an ambitious young operative who is now Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff. Where Kelly could be politically tone deaf, Ayers ran a presidential campaign before he was 30. Trump has taken other recent steps towards a campaign mode. On Friday [12-7-18] two senior White house aides — political director Bill Stepien and Justin Clark, the director of the Office of Public Liaison — announced they would move to his re-election operation. Brian Jack, the deputy White House political director, is expected to replace Stepien as White House political director. White House aides predicted that Ayers, if tapped despite internal opposition to his selection, would focus the West Wing almost entirely on the president’s reelection effort.”
–Eliana Johnson, “Kelly exit helps position Trump for 2020,” Politico, December 8, 2018 4:33 pm