Kelly has also reportedly said several times—at least once in front of Trump—that women are more emotional than men—a claim the White House did little to nullify when one of its spokespeople agreed that “generally speaking, women are more emotional than men.” And while engulfed in the Porter drama, Kelly reportedly “wondered aloud how much more Porter would have to endure before his honor could be restored,” and “questioned why Porter’s ex-wives wouldn’t just move on based on the information he said he had about his marriages.”

With his standing in the White House increasingly in jeopardy, Kelly attempted to save face, saying in a statement disseminated through the White House press office on Monday afternoon, “I spend more time with the president than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total B.S. I am committed to the president, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”

In any other administration, the allegation that the president’s chief of staff had called him an “idiot” would stand out as a singular event. (As NBC points out, the closest parallel is between Ronald Reagan and Don Regan, the latter of whom, per historian Michael Beschloss, “somewhat looked down on” the president and was eventually replaced.) But in the Trump White House, Kelly joins a growing list of staffers who have employed similar descriptions of the president. Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson’s labeling of Trump as a “moron,” which he never outright denied, was the beginning of the end of his job, and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly unloaded on Trump in private, labeling him an “idiot” and a “dope” (a claim the White House denied). In each case, the offending staffer was gone in a matter of weeks.