TRUE COLORS:

Even if Kelly could take away, to take one important case, Steve Bannon's open access to the Oval Office, can he do the same for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump?

Trump has already entrusted his son-in-law with an absurdly broad portfolio of responsibilities. Nepotism has a high cost. No matter how tough Kelly is, he will not be tough enough to cut Trump's blood ties. In any event, controlling the flow of information to a President who seems to believe anything aired by FOX News, no matter how outlandish, is a fool's errand.

Secondly, Kelly needs to either remove or gain control over Trump's Twitter account. Trump himself is convinced that his tweets are essential to communicating directly with voters. On that, he may well be right. But the medium also allows Trump's infantile and impulsive qualities to come to the fore in ways that hugely interfere with governance.

Even if both of these improbable measures were implemented, it would still be almost impossible for Kelly to cure this presidency of what ails it. In his CNN interview, Scaramucci employed the expression, the fish stinks from the head down. Attacking his rivals in the White House, Scaramucci continued, "but I can tell you two fish that don't stink, and that's me and the President."

That is exactly backward. Scaramucci has already revealed that he will be worse than worthless, a blabbermouth and an attention-seeking wrecker in a White House that, like every previous White House, needs a measure of cohesion.

Trump, too, over the past two years has revealed his colors. No matter who is serving as chief of staff, the weak, ignorant, sadistic, shallow, morally empty man who occupies the most powerful position in the world will not succeed as President.

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