"Tillerson would merely become another example of a subordinate who believed his own abilities could somehow compensate for Trump's failings. Aligned with Tillerson were three generals, Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly, each seeing themselves as representing maturity, stability, and restraint. And each, of course, was resented by Trump for it. The suggestion that any or all of these men might be more focused and even tempered than Trump himself was cause for sulking and tantrums on the president's part. The daily discussion among senior staffers, those still there and those now gone- all of whom had written off Tillerson's future in the Trump administration- was how long General Kelly would last as chief of staff. There was some thing of a virtual office pool, and the joke was that Reince Priebus was likely to be Trump's longest-serving chief of staff. Kely's distaste for the president was open knowledge- in his every word and gesture he condescended to Trump- the president's distaste for Kelly even more so. It was sport for the president to defy Kelly, who had become the one thing in his life he had never been able to abide: a disapproving and censorious father figure."