Although it’s been widely speculated that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly would leave the administration this summer amid lingering tensions with President Trump, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Tuesday that the president asked Kelly to stay on through the 2020 election and that he agreed. (CNN and the Washington Post subsequently confirmed the reports.)
Kelly reportedly told staff about Trump’s request on Monday, which marked his one-year anniversary of helping drive the president’s agenda of family separations, vilifying immigrants, and really, really hating Mexico.
According to the Journal, if Kelly actually manages to hang on through 2020, he would become the longest-serving chief of staff in American history, surpassing Andy Card, who was George W. Bush’s chief of staff for more than five years.