--- title: White House Chief of Staff Doesn't Follow Trump's Tweets description: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said he doesn't follow Trump's tweets, hours after the President called Kim Jong Un "short and fat" canonical: https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-12T17:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:59.131Z article:section: Politics og:title: John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets og:description: "I do not follow the tweets," he said after Trump lashed out on Twitter og:url: https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb45da2318c4d8f70/6988b8370a4a22687a9ccc8c/john-kelly-ban-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2466 og:image:height: 1387 og:image:alt: Trump hosts a cyber security meeting at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets twitter:description: "I do not follow the tweets," he said after Trump lashed out on Twitter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb45da2318c4d8f70/6988b8370a4a22687a9ccc8c/john-kelly-ban-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: President Trump Says He Trusts Intelligence Agencies and Putin on Election Meddling [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Says He Trusts Intelligence Agencies and Putin on Election Meddling](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VT6rIHjt.m3u8) (0:51)  _Published 2017-11-12. President Donald Trump tried to have it both ways Sunday on the issue of Russian interference in last year’s presidential race, saying he believes the U.S. intelligence agencies when they say Russia meddled and Russian President Vladimir Putin_  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 12, 2017 5:00 PM UTC  Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listens to U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting with cyber security experts in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 31, 2017. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listens to U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting with cyber security experts in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 31, 2017. Kevin Lamarque—Reuters  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 12, 2017 5:00 PM UTC White House Chief of Staff [John Kelly](http://time.com/5004382/john-kelly-white-house-civil-war/) said he doesn’t follow [President Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/5020293/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-election-meddling/) tweets — hours after Trump lashed out on Twitter, describing [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un](http://time.com/4953210/north-korea-kim-jong-un-speech-donald-trump/) as “[short and fat.](http://time.com/5020694/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-twitter/)” “Someone, I read the other day, said we all just react to the tweets,” Kelly told reporters on Sunday in Vietnam, [according to the Los Angeles _Times_](http://beta.latimes.com/politics/la-fg-twitter-kelly-20171112-story.html). “We don’t. I don’t. I don’t allow the staff to. We know what we’re doing.” “Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets,” Kelly said. “I find out about them,” he said, according to the _Times_. “But for our purposes, my purpose, is we make sure the president is briefed up on what he’s about to do.” Trump is currently in the Phillipines after visiting Japan, China, South Korea and Vietnam on a tour of Asia this week. “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!” Trump wrote as part of a series of tweets on Sunday morning in Vietnam. He also slammed “Crooked Hillary Clinton” and “all the haters and fools” who are raising questions about [possible collusion](http://time.com/5006957/george-papadapolous-guilty-plea/) between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, defended Trump’s tweet on Sunday when asked in an [ABC News interview](http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/counselor-president-kellyanne-conway-51096956) if “name-calling is helpful.” “I think that that was a — the president just responding the way he does to somebody who insulted him first, but I look at the full context of his entire trip and everything that he’s trying to do,” Conway said. “I think it’s been an incredibly successful and inspiring trip for those who care about North Korea not being nuclearized.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/929503641014112256) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/929509950811881472) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/929511061954297857) ## Transcript Could you once and for all, definitively Sir, yes or no, say whether or not you belive that President Putin and or Russia interfered in the election? I'm surprised there's any conflict on this. What I said there is I believe he believes that, and that's very important for somebody to believe. I believe that he feels. That he and Russia did not meddle in the election. As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies, especially are currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our intel agencies, our intelligence agencies, I've worked with them very strongly. There weren't 17 as was previously reported, there were actually four But they were saying that there were 17. There were actually four. But as currently led by fine people. 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