ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI’S tenure as White House communications director lasted just ten days—shorter than anyone other than the German-born John Koehler, whose admission that he took part in a Hitler Youth programme he described as “the Boy Scouts run by the Nazi Party” triggered his resignation about a week after Ronald Reagan had appointed him. Mr Scaramucci was also the last of three White House aides to leave in ten tumultuous days. Sean Spicer resigned as press secretary rather than report to Mr Scaramucci who, unlike Mr Spicer, had no previous experience in political communication. A week later President Donald Trump replaced Reince Priebus, the chief of staff, with John Kelly, a retired Marine general who had been serving as homeland security secretary.

Many in Mr Trump’s orbit have welcomed all three departures. Mr Trump likes relatives and people personally loyal to him, while Messrs Spicer and Priebus rose through Republican Party ranks. Mr Priebus, a dogged, earnest Wisconsinite who last autumn allegedly pressed Mr Trump to drop out of the presidential race after an old tape surfaced of him bragging about grabbing women’s genitals, never won Mr Trump’s respect. Mr Spicer had ceded press-briefing duties to his deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders; he reportedly grew tired of Mr Trump’s needling. The president’s son-in-law and daughter, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, suspected both men of insufficient loyalty.

Mr Scaramucci was a much Trumpier figure—a nattily dressed, self-made millionaire from Long Island just as brash and inexperienced as his boss. Unfortunately, he was spectacularly bad at his job. Most communications directors operate behind the scenes, working out how best to craft the president’s message and rally support. Mr Scaramucci gave an interview to a New Yorker reporter in which he called Mr Priebus, who was nominally his boss, “a fucking paranoid schizophrenic” and claimed Steve Bannon, Mr Trump’s paleo-conservative chief adviser, performed a physically unlikely act of self-pleasure. Mr Kelly was hired to bring discipline and order to a leaky, fractious, chaotic White House; few were surprised when he got rid of Mr Scaramucci just hours after being sworn in. But from here his mission gets harder.

Kelly’s slate

Mr Kelly comes from one of the only two groups of people the president seems to respect: billionaires and generals. He has experience dealing with Congress: he was the Marines’ liaison to the House of Representatives for four years in the late-1990s, a perch from which he saw up close Newt Gingrich’s tumultuous reign as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was also legislative aide to the Marines’ commandant in the mid-2000s. And he has run a large, unwieldy organisation as head of the US Southern Command, which oversees all American military activity in Central and South America.

Whereas Mr Trump used to belittle Mr Priebus, he has given Mr Kelly traditional chief-of-staff authority. Ms Sanders affirmed that senior White House officials, including Messrs Kushner and Bannon, will report to him rather than to the president, as was the case under Mr Priebus. Mr Kelly’s ascent may have empowered other generals in the administration. This week H.R. McMaster, the national-security adviser, sacked Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence, who he had tried and failed to fire in March.

How long that authority will last is unclear. Mr Trump encourages factionalism and competition among his underlings. In the Marines Mr Kelly could punish the insubordinate. Will he be able to do the same to recalcitrant aides—especially those such as Mr Kushner and Ms Trump, who are also family? Mr Kelly will certainly not be able to get Mr Trump to cede control of his Twitter account, and message discipline only goes so far when the messenger himself is undisciplined. “The problem,” says Peter Wehner, who worked in the previous three Republican administrations, “is fundamentally in the disordered mind and personality of President Trump.”

After six months in office, Mr Trump still does not have a big legislative achievement, despite Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. That is less the fault of leakers or an undisciplined White House staff than unsquareable policy circles (Republicans who believe the government should get out of the health-care business will never agree with those who view health care as a right) and an increasingly poisonous relationship with congressional Republicans.

In the wake of his health-care defeat, the president has harangued Republican senators on Twitter. John McCain took to the Senate floor to remind his colleagues, “We are not the president’s subordinates. We are his equal.” Mr McCain’s fellow-Arizonan in the Senate, Jeff Flake, has released a book about the danger that Trumpism poses to conservatism (see Lexington). Perhaps Mr Kelly will be able to smooth some ruffled feathers, but the chorus of complaints sounds less like bruised egos than long-standing private distaste for Mr Trump at last coming into the open.

Mr Trump’s attempts to govern via Twitter do not help. On July 26th, for instance, he tweeted that the armed forces “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity.” But he did not consult military chiefs or the secretary of defence, and released no implementation plan. The generals said they would not enact his order without guidance on how to implement it.

The president’s Twitter attacks on Jeff Sessions, his attorney-general, with whom he is furious for recusing himself from Russia-related investigations, have quietened down for the moment. They provoked outrage from some usually supportive commentators, as well as Mr Sessions’s former colleagues in the Senate.

Ms Sanders denied rumours that Mr Sessions would move to the now-vacant post of homeland security, which would allow Mr Trump to appoint a more compliant attorney-general. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, warned of “holy hell to pay” if Mr Sessions is fired, while Chuck Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned that no new attorney-general would be confirmed this year. The transgender ban, attacks on Mr Sessions and high-handed treatment of Republican legislators all came from Mr Trump himself.

Most alarming for anyone hoping that Mr Kelly can right the ship is Mr Trump’s habit of disregarding advice. On July 31st the Washington Post reported that last month he defied his counsellors and lawyers to dictate personally a misleading statement about a meeting with a Russian lawyer released under his son’s name. (Mr Trump’s lawyer denied the report, but Ms Sanders said Mr Trump “weighed in as any father would”.) That evinces not poor staff control, but Mr Trump’s questionable political, strategic and moral instincts.

Throughout Mr Trump’s campaign and presidency, supporters have said he would soon moderate his behaviour. It never happened: Mr Trump is who he is. Mr Kelly may successfully impose order on the lower ranks. But even the best generals cannot discipline their commander-in-chief.