White House chief of staff John Kelly reassured Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE that President Trump is not going to fire him despite his public criticism in recent weeks, according to a new report on Wednesday.

Kelly told Sessions in a phone call on Saturday that he has the support of the White House, two sources familiar with the conversation told The Associated Press. Kelly has the authority of the president on many senior staffing decisions.

During the call, which took place on the weekend before Kelly officially took over as chief of staff, Kelly stressed that while the president is still upset with Sessions, he does not plan on firing him or pushing him to resign.

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The president has said he is "disappointed" with Sessions and views his decision to recuse himself from the probe into Russian election interference as "unfair" to him.

"We will see what happens," Trump said when asked last week about Sessions's future in the president's Cabinet.

Kelly moved into his new position from his previous position as head of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday. He immediately set about reordering the White House staff, starting by firing Anthony Scaramucci, who held his position as communications director for just over a week.