Is Moving Kelly To Chief Of Staff Part Of Larger Plan To Fire Mueller?

I just heard an interesting theory on MSNBC this morning concerning the fate of Jeff Sessions. The idea is that, by moving Kelly into the White House, it opens up the slot at Homeland Security. This would then allow Sessions to move over to DHS and continue to torment immigrants, which has always been one of Sessions’ priorities. And that would open up the AG slot for Trump to appoint someone who will fire Mueller.

This solves at least two problems for Trump. First, he doesn’t have to fire Sessions and, secondly, it gets around the problem of a recess appointment for AG, since the GOP has promised there will be no recess. But it doesn’t solve the problem of Chuck Grassley’s vow to not even consider a new nomination for Attorney General anytime soon, meaning that Rod Rosenstein, who has also vowed not to fire Mueller, will become acting AG until the nomination is confirmed.

But even that may not deter Trump who has begun to hold more rallies lately in the hopes of firing up his base again and focusing their anger on recalcitrant Congressional Republicans. The obvious immediate targets are Collins, Murkowski, and McCain. I imagine that McConnell will also become a target as well, especially if he does not destroy the legislative filibuster as Trump demands. And if Trump goes ahead with the plan detailed above, then Grassley will also become a target for blocking Trump from getting the cabinet he wants.

With tax reform severely constricted by the failure of healthcare and its resulting lower budget baseline, the need to pass the debt ceiling with Democratic votes, and the need to pass a budget, again perhaps with Democratic votes, it is going to be an interesting few months for Congressional Republicans after they return from the August recess. I expect that Trump will only make their life more difficult.