--- title: "Mattis And Kelly Made A Secret Pact To Babysit Trump" date: "2017-08-01" modified: "2017-08-01" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller.md" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/john-kelly-mattis-trump-babysit/" categories: - "Around the World" - "Marine Corps" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "United States" tags: - "donald trump" - "general mattis" - "Leadership" - "Pentagon" - "the white house" --- # Mattis And Kelly Made A Secret Pact To Babysit Trump ![]() You know you’re living in unusual times when the sanest person in the executive branch of the U.S. government is nicknamed “Chaos.” That’s the primary takeaway from an Associated Press [curtain-raiser ]()on retired Marine Gen. John Kelly’s ascension to the rank of White House chief of staff. While the executive role traditionally considered gatekeeper to the commander-in-chief and the constitutional authority he wields, the AP [hints]() at a different dynamic in the Oval Office: *\[Secretary of Defense James\] Mattis and Kelly also agreed in the earliest weeks of Trump’s presidency that one of them should **remain in the United States at all times to keep tabs on the orders rapidly emerging from the White House**, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the administration’s internal dynamics.* “Orders rapidly emerging from the White House” is a delightful euphemism for the president's tendency to rule by decree tweet, a habit that has roiled a Department of Defense scrambling to interpret whether Trump’s unpredictable digital broadsides are, say, a [signal of imminent attack]() on North Korea or something slightly more innocuous. Republican lawmakers who spoke to the AP are [praying]() that Kelly, a retired four-star general [known for his disciplinarian streak](), will “forcefully clean the place up.” [Axing]() foul-mouthed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci less than two weeks into the job is certainly a good start for Kelly in terms of ending the turmoil that’s plagued the executive branch since Trump’s inauguration, but the AP story indicates that Mattis and Kelly — who, it's worth noting, recommended each other for Secretary of Defense in the weeks after Election Day — have been actively working to reign in Trump’s more quixotic impulses since his inaugural. Together with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford — another Marine general and reportedly [one of Kelly’s closest friends]() — they form a troika of Marine Corps discipline around an Oval Office brimming with chaos. This is far from, you know, a military coup: Trump’s prerogative has been to surround himself with the most generals since the end of World War II. And though observers of the imperial executive may [cringe]() at the idea of an elected commander-in-chief vesting an unelected Cabinet official with constitutional decision-making authority as Trump did with Mattis and Afghan troop levels, a filter of generals seems like a more palatable option to *realpolitik* by tweet. That said, there’s one more element of the AP story that really stands out: the date. Aug. 1 marks 5,777 days since the start of the War in Afghanistan, but more importantly, it marks the 31st anniversary of the publication of *The Baby-Sitters Club* — and something tells me it’s Mattis’s secret favorite. **WATCH NEXT:** ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()