Retired Gen. John F. Kelly has replaced Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce the move. Priebus resignation comes shortly after the new Director for Communications, Anthony Scaramucci, issued thinly veiled accusations against him about leaking information to the press.
67-year-old Gen. Kelly, who comes from an Irish Catholic family, spent 40 years in the Marines, rising to the rank of 4-star General. Later in life, he took charge of the Homeland Security department, where he led a crackdown on illegal immigrants, earning Trump’s favor in the process.
Kelly served as commander of US southern command area under the Obama administration from 2012, and was opposed to the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Kelly’s son, a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps, died in combat in Afghanistan in 2010.