--- title: John Kelly Says He's Never Considered Quitting White House description: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said in a new interview that he's never considered quitting his post as a top Trump adviser. canonical: https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-11T12:55:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:27.067Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly Says He's Never Considered Quitting og:description: He says he has a "close relationship" with Trump og:url: https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6f8f99e6ef97a59/69893027ab6d7779596b2a1c/john-kelly-trump-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump Receives Briefing From Senior Military Leadership og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly Says He's Never Considered Quitting twitter:description: He says he has a "close relationship" with Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6f8f99e6ef97a59/69893027ab6d7779596b2a1c/john-kelly-trump-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly Says He's Never Considered Quitting ## Video: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Insists He Isn't Quitting or Getting Fired [Watch (HLS stream): White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Insists He Isn't Quitting or Getting Fired](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Huzg6FGE.m3u8) (0:47)  _Published 2017-10-12. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says he's not quitting, getting fired or firing anyone else, "unless things change."_ by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 11, 2018 12:55 PM UTC  John Kelly, White House chief of staff, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, speaks during a meeting with senior military leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 9, 2018. John Kelly, White House chief of staff, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, speaks during a meeting with senior military leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 9, 2018.Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 11, 2018 12:55 PM UTC White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said in a new interview that he’s never considered quitting his post, despite longtime [speculation over how long he will remain](http://time.com/5118990/donald-trump-john-kelly-chief-staff/) as a top adviser to President Donald Trump Kelly told NPR that he and Trump have a “close relationship,” often spending up to eight hours each day together. Kelly said he tries to “speak truth to power.” “I always give my opinion on everything. He always listens,” Kelly said. “Sometimes he takes the opinion, sometimes he doesn’t.” Kelly rebuffed questions over whether he had seriously thought about leaving the White House, though he acknowledged “times of great frustration,” which he mostly attributed to news coverage of him and his colleagues. In fact, Kelly said he wished he could have started his White House job sooner than last July, when Trump announced he would [replace former chief of staff Reince Priebus](http://time.com/4879260/donald-trump-reince-priebus-john-kelly/). “It’s not that things were a disaster that first six months but I believe they could have been better,” he said. “In retrospect, I wish I had been here from day one.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/"},"headline":"Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly Says He's Never Considered Quitting","datePublished":"2018-05-11T12:55:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:27.067Z","description":"He says he has a \"close relationship\" with Trump","url":"https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6f8f99e6ef97a59/69893027ab6d7779596b2a1c/john-kelly-trump-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6f8f99e6ef97a59/69893027ab6d7779596b2a1c/john-kelly-trump-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Donald Trump Receives Briefing From Senior Military Leadership","caption":"President Donald Trump Receives Briefing From Senior Military Leadership","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","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/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/","name":"Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly Says He's Never Considered Quitting"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly Insists He Isn't Quitting or Getting Fired","description":"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says he's not quitting, getting fired or firing anyone else, \"unless things change.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Huzg6FGE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-12T18:31:52.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Huzg6FGE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/","duration":"PT47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5274000/john-kelly-donald-trump-resign/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```