Kelly never thought about ‘getting rid of’ Kushner, Ivanka

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says he has never considered “getting rid of” US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Senior Advisor Jared Kushner.

Kelly made the comments in a Saturday New York Times report, which floated the possibility of ousting the two controversial figures.

"There was honestly never a time when I contemplated getting rid of Jared and Ivanka,” Kelly told the Times.

‘Jared works for me’

Since he replaced ousted Reince Priebus, Kelly has attempted to impose more order on the administration, in part by curbing the activities of the president’s Jewish son-on-law in the West Wing.

The White House chief of staff was separately cited as telling his associates that “Jared works for me.”

“Mr. Kelly has even discussed the possibility of Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, departing the West Wing by the end of the year,” the report said, according to three advisors to the president.

Kushner, meanwhile, said that he had no intention of leaving the White House.

“We’re here to stay,” he told The Washington Post. “At the current moment, we’re charging forward.”

Kushner, a 36-year-old real estate heir, has been put in charge of the Middle East and tapped as a negotiator to bring about peace between Israel and Palestinians.

Read more:

• Kushner unwelcome in Palestine, chant protesters

Trump himself moved Friday to defend Kushner in the wake of his increasingly low-key role in his father-in-law’s administration. 

“Jared is working very hard on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and the last thing I would ever do is get in the way of that possibility,” said the president. “Jared has been very effective since the earliest days of the campaign and the same is true today. He understood the movement then and has been helpful implementing the agenda the American people voted for since.”

“Determining anyone’s place in Mr. Trump’s orbit, of course, is a hazardous exercise. The president’s affections are fickle,” read the report.

Kushner is also a person of interest in the ongoing probe into Russia’s alleged intervention in the 2016 presidential election that yielded President Trump.

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