White House chief of staff John Kelly

Tucked within this telling New York Times profile of White House chief of staff John Kelly is this nugget about how shocked he and other Trump aides were that his defamatory attack on Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson drew wide condemnation.

Mr. Kelly decided himself to head out to the White House briefing room to defend the president, colleagues said, and most of his remarks reflected on his own experience as the father of a slain soldier and the nature of military service. He brought tears to the eyes of other White House aides, who afterward traded emails expressing admiration for Mr. Kelly’s passionate defense of Mr. Trump. It was only afterward that they began to see how the attack on Ms. Wilson came to overshadow the emotion of the first part of his speech. Mr. Kelly was surprised by the criticism of his speech, colleagues said, but he has not apologized to Ms. Wilson for making false statements about her. White House officials said they opted against it to avoid extending the story.

Let's review.

Kelly chose to make the remarks.

Aides were shocked that he got blowback after he smeared the reputation of a congresswoman who had close ties to the family of slain soldier Sgt. La David Johnson.

The slanderous attack apparently didn't register with White House aides because they were so wowed by Kelly's "passionate defense" of a pr*sident who has repeatedly attacked Gold Star families and had fueled a week's worth of controversy by telling bald-faced lies about his communication with the families of fallen soldiers—as if defending Trump was the honorable thing to do in the first place.