President Trump’s removal of John Kelly as his top aide is part of a rolling staff makeover that could soon result in the departure of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, White House officials and people close to the administration said.
Mr. Trump has made plain he is unhappy with the performance of some members of his cabinet and White House team. Over Thanksgiving, he said at his Mar-a-Lago resort that some of his cabinet members “can do very well outside” the government.
An immediate priority is filling the chief of staff job that Mr. Kelly is vacating at year’s end. But the White House is also bulking up a counsel’s office that will duel with an incoming House Democratic majority that plans to dig into Mr. Trump’s dealings and the aftermath of any report on the president’s Russia connections from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Ms. Nielsen was a protégé of Mr. Kelly, who touted her as his successor when he left the Homeland Security Department a year and a half ago to become Mr. Trump’s second chief of staff. When Mr. Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton faulted her for not taking sufficiently bold steps to shore up the border, Mr. Kelly would defend Ms. Nielsen’s performance.
With Mr. Kelly on his way out, Ms. Nielsen is increasingly vulnerable. and department officials are bracing for a change, past and present administration officials said. “People there are waiting for the guillotine,” said one former homeland security official.
A current department official said Ms. Nielsen wouldn’t resign, leaving it to the president to fire her. “She loves this,” the official said. “They’d have to drag her out of here.”
Still, Ms. Nielsen appears to be considering future employment and has begun to look around for potential jobs related to cybersecurity, another former DHS official said.
In a statement, DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton didn’t address whether she is exploring other employment, saying: “She is fully focused on her second year as secretary, supporting the men and women of DHS, and the mission at hand.”
After this article was published, Ms. Nielsen’s office said that she had not been looking for other jobs. “The secretary has not been searching for jobs,” said Mr. Houlton. “She has a job and is committed to continuing in it. Any suggestion to the contrary is patently false.”
Mr. Trump is retooling the top ranks of his administration ahead of some of the biggest challenges he has faced. Come January, Democrats will take control of the House and can use their majority status to thwart the president’s agenda and subject him to more aggressive oversight.
Meanwhile, he awaits the findings of Mr. Mueller, who is examining whether he obstructed justice or colluded with Russia during the last presidential campaign. Mr. Trump has denied both allegations and Moscow has said it didn’t interfere in the 2016 election.
The president put things in motion Friday, before a private staff appreciation dinner at the White House, when he took Mr. Kelly aside and said he wanted to make a change, White House officials said. They were later joined in that conversation by Vice President Mike Pence and his top aide, Nick Ayers, who was then seen as the prohibitive front-runner to succeed Mr. Kelly.
The president was surprised when Mr. Ayers unexpectedly pulled out Sunday, people close to the White House said. Mr. Ayers only wanted to serve for several months and then return home to Georgia, while Mr. Trump insisted on a longer commitment, White House officials said.
Having failed to lock in Mr. Ayers, Mr. Trump quizzed some of his advisers about potential candidates, people familiar with the conversations said. One person recommended Matthew Whitaker, now the acting attorney general. Mr. Trump said in reply that he liked Mr. Whitaker, who White House officials said is a viable candidate if not a favorite for the job.
Mr. Trump also asked about Rep. Mark Meadows and he has called lawmakers on Capitol Hill to sound them out about the North Carolina Republican who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The White House had initially announced the president was considering at least four candidates.
“The first requirement is to hire someone who understands that he or she is staff, and not chief—and that the president is elected and he or she is not,” said Kenneth Duberstein, who was chief of staff under former President Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Meadows said in an interview that he was “honored and flattered to be on the list” for chief of staff, and said “it’s certainly something I would consider."
In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr. Trump told reporters he was in “no rush” and that “a lot of people want the job.”
Another candidate is Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, people close to the White House said. Over the weekend, a White House official said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wasn’t in the running. But another White House official said Tuesday Mr. Mnuchin is being discussed internally as a potential candidate. His preference is to remain Treasury secretary, a person familiar with his thinking said.
Another corner of the White House that is in the midst of an overhaul is the White House counsel’s office, which has been hollowed out since the departure of Donald McGahn in October. The counsel’s office will be on the front lines of skirmishes with the new Democratic House majority
On Monday, Mr. McGahn’s successor, Washington attorney Pat Cipollone, started work and has been given a mandate to fortify an office that had dwindled to about 20 lawyers— half the number who were there in President Barack Obama’s White House.
People close to Mr. Cipollone said he comes to the job intent on protecting executive privileges, setting the stage for a standoff with the new House Democratic majority vowing to subpoena records and closely examine Mr. Trump’s decisions and dealings. Mr. Cipollone didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“The days of presidential immunity are over. We’re going to do our job,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.), a member of the House intelligence committee.
