31 July, 2017
President Donald Trump announced via Twitter on Friday that he's replacing the former Republican Party chairman with the secretary of homeland security, John Kelly.
Kelly is a retired Marine Corps general and could bring military-style discipline to a White House undercut by insider quarrels.
The announcement comes after a week of conflict between Priebus and Trump's newly appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who had accused the chief of staff of leaking damaging information about him. "He's a great, great American". Trump spoke briefly with the media on the tarmac, saying "Reince is a good man, John Kelly will do a fantastic job".
Trump is calling Kelly "a true star" of the administration.
Sanders said Trump thanked Priebus for his service. "I think it's a good time to hit the reset button ... it's something I think the White House needs and I support him", Priebus told CNN. "The president thanks him and his family for his great service to the country, and he will always be a member of the Trump team".
After Scaramucci was named communications director last week against Priebus' objections, White House officials widely believed that Priebus' position had become more imperiled.
"Reince is a f**king paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac", Mr Scaramucci told The New Yorker in an unhinged, profanity-filled interview.
Scaramucci made clear when he was hired that he reported not to Priebus but directly to the president, and by Wednesday night, he was publicly suggesting that the chief of staff was a leaker and even threatened to seek an FBI investigation.
"If you look back at chiefs of staff it's the number one hot seat there is, as far as a West Wing employee", Priebus said.
Mr Priebus, who hails from Wisconsin and has deep ties to House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan, had grown increasingly isolated in the White House as past Republican National Committee colleagues and other allies have left or been pushed out.
But Kelly's appointment leaves a gap at the Department of Homeland Security, and his successor will have to be confirmed by the Senate. But he clashed with Scaramucci and had been under siege by Trump advisers inside and outside of the White House who complained that he was ineffectual.
However, Kelly has clashed with congressional Democrats in recent months because he has indicated that the Trump administration was unlikely to continue the Obama-era deferred action for childhood arrivals program that protects certain eligible youth from deportation if they were brought to the US illegally by their parents.
Trump has privately floated names of potential chief of staff replacements, but has said he's not planning more staff shake-ups anytime soon. "He'll be asked to resign very shortly", Scaramucci said.
Priebus served a scant 189 days as chief of staff, the shortest tenure in decades for someone in that post. "I could not be more proud to call Reince a dear friend".
Ryan added that he was looking forward to working with Kelly as well.
