John F. Kelly

   October 13, 2020  Posted in Administration 911 Views
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Positions Held in the Trump Administration

  • White House Chief of Staff July 2017-Dec 2018)
  • Secretary of Homeland Security (January 2017-July 2017)

Main Offenses

Islamophobia

Much like his claim of ever-present terrorism, Kelly’s islamophobia was everywhere, constant, and nonstop. Kelly was the stalwart defender of Trump’s immigration ban focusing on Muslim countries. In addition to the immigration measures, Kelly insisted on increasing background checks and demanding personal social media passwords from would-be travelers from those same nations. These efforts, despite court intervention, were repeatedly implemented while Kelly ran DHS and continued while Kelly was Chief of Staff for Trump.

Defending the Confederacy

Disgracing the armed services, former general Kelly defended the actions of Robert E. Lee as “an honorable man who gave up his country to fight for his state.” This is a monstrous way of describing treason for the purpose of defending the ability to own other human beings. He continued by saying “men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had them make their stand.” These words from Trump’s Chief of Staff were particularly insensitive, as they followed two months after the so-called Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where different stripes of white supremacist gathered to oppose the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. In addition to masses of racists carrying torches and fire arms, one white supremacist ran his car into peaceful protest, killing a 32-year-old named Heather Heyer.

In the aftermath of this incredibly painful event, Trump defended the neo-Nazis present by claiming there were “very fine people on both sides” of the racist rally and peaceful counter-protests.  Kelly, aware of the context, evoked the already infamous language of his boss in defending the confederate traitor.

Ethics concerns

Right from the start, Kelly played fast and loose with ethics – reporting shows that Kelly failed to disclose his board positions on three different defense contractor firms on his ethics form while taking a position at the department of homeland security. Besides the obvious ethical dilemma caused by such an omission, one of the undisclosed firms – Sallyport Global – was later involved in creating the firm Caliburn International, whose subsidiary ran Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, a for-profit migrant child detention center. The story continues, as Kelley joined the board of Caliburn shortly after leaving the White House. The decision to join the firm after its unsavory associations with the detention center, especially given the hazy associations Kelly had with the groups foundation, has been seen a both corrupt and morally unforgiveable.

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