John Kelly, now a punching bag, takes backseat to 'Fox & Friends' on influencing Trump

John Kelly trails economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Donald Trump as they exited the G7 summit in Quebec in June.

Whatever high hopes former Marine General John Kelly had when he was appointed White House chief of staff have long given way to the dismal reality of Donald Trump's West Wing. It's a one-man show and no one is getting in the way of Trump's delusion that he's nailing it on a daily basis. 

Perhaps Kelly should have had a clue his new job would bite when he found out he was getting it via a surprise Trump tweet. Politico writes:

John Kelly got the official news of his promotion a year ago the same way a select few in the Trump administration have — by presidential tweet.

Though a White House spokesperson claimed at the time that Trump had given Kelly a formal job offer in advance, it was a lie. Natch.

About a year later, Kelly is almost useless, having lost respect among staffers and exerting little control over Trump's impulsive agenda, decisions, and tweeting. Almost useless ... 

But for this president, keeping Kelly around offers the best of both worlds: somebody to blame when things go awry but nobody fettering his freedom of action.

So who's setting Trump's agenda?

“He comes down for the day, and whatever he saw on Fox & Friends, he schedules meetings based on that,” one former White House official told Politico. “If it’s Iran, it’s ‘Get John Bolton down here!’” Or if he spoke to Fox’s Sean Hannity the night before, the official said, “he’s got lots of flexibility to do whatever he wants to do.”

Let that sink in.