Trump’s cabinet: The people around the president

The president initially nominated the retired Marine General to oversee Homeland Security before promoting him to chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus.

Mr Kelly was a key influence on the decision to fire the director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci, after just 10 days in office.

The former four-star general, whose military career spans four decades, quit as head of the military’s Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, to join the Trump administration.

Mr Kelly is the highest-ranking military officer to lose a child in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His son Robert, a first lieutenant in the Marines, was killed in combat when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan in 2010.

The seasoned commander had previously clashed with the Obama administration on illegal immigration at the US-Mexican border.

In December Mr Trump said Mr Kelly would leave his post by the end of the year. It followed reports that the relationship between the two had deteriorated.