--- 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" title: John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb45da2318c4d8f70/6988b8370a4a22687a9ccc8c/john-kelly-ban-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 12, 2017 5:00 PM CUT  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](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 12, 2017 5:00 PM CUT White House Chief of Staff [John Kelly](http://time.com/5004382/john-kelly-white-house-civil-war/ "undefined") said he doesn’t follow [President Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/5020293/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-election-meddling/ "undefined") 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/ "undefined") as “[short and fat.](http://time.com/5020694/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-twitter/ "undefined")” “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 "undefined"). “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/ "undefined") 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 "undefined") 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) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/"},"headline":"John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets","datePublished":"2017-11-12T17:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:12:39.247Z","description":"\"I do not follow the tweets,\" he said after Trump lashed out on Twitter","url":"https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb45da2318c4d8f70/6988b8370a4a22687a9ccc8c/john-kelly-ban-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb45da2318c4d8f70/6988b8370a4a22687a9ccc8c/john-kelly-ban-immigration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump hosts a cyber security meeting at the White House in Washington","caption":"Trump hosts a cyber security meeting at the White House in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/","name":"John Kelly Says He Doesn't Follow President Trump's Tweets"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Says He Trusts Intelligence Agencies and Putin on Election Meddling","description":"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","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VT6rIHjt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-11-12T15:20:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VT6rIHjt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/","duration":"PT51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5020743/donald-trump-john-kelly-tweets/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```