President Trump's chief of staff helped on Thursday to shift a controversy between Trump and the widow of a fallen soldier to the Democratic congresswoman who alleged Trump had upset the Gold Star wife, capping off a week of questions about Trump's outreach to military families.

John Kelly, himself a retired general and Gold Star father, attacked the media and Democrats in a rare public appearance at the White House on Thursday for what he described as their exploitation of a family's pain to score political points against the president. In doing so, he forced reflection among all sides of the debate about how they had approached a topic he described as "sacred" and potentially spared Trump from several additional days of scrutiny related to his treatment of military families.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., said Tuesday evening that Trump had telephoned Myeshia Johnson, wife of slain Sgt. La David Johnson, and told her her husband "must have known what he signed up for" when he joined the military. La David Johnson was among the four U.S. soldiers killed in an attack in Niger on Oct. 4. The Pentagon is still investigating the circumstances surrounding the apparent ambush.

Trump vehemently denied Wilson's characterization of the phone call, and the White House later claimed the president had called the families of every fallen military service member whose case had progressed through an internal review process.

Ford O'Connell, a GOP strategist, said such overwrought criticism of Trump's many controversies can ultimately help him among his supporters.

"Whether he initiates it or they come at him, the more his opponents come for his jugular, it reminds his voters why they voted for him," O'Connell said.

Read more from Sarah Westwood at the Washington Examiner

Retired Marine general and Brighton native John Kelly assumes the White House chief of staff post today with high hopes he can better advance President Trump’s legislative and policy goals, amid his boss’ often erratic messaging and infighting among Oval Office advisers.

“Kelly’s job is to bring discipline and unity of purpose to a White House that has had early stumbles and a healthy dose of palace intrigue,” GOP operative Ford O’Connell said. “That could be a big game-changer for the White House, because of the things that they want to achieve, like tax reform, the budget, infrastructure — these are only going to come when, and if, the White House shows more of a unity of purpose.”

Kelly, initially tapped as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, replaces former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who Trump unceremoniously dumped last week after clashes with other factions close to Trump.

A former congressional adviser for the Marines, Kelly won plaudits earlier this year for his handling of the maelstrom over Trump’s travel ban, taking the heat for wording that didn’t pass court muster and seeing through revisions that held up before the Supreme Court.

Read more from Jack Encarncao at the Boston Herald

Donald Trump has long evinced a live-and-let-live attitude toward gay, lesbian, and transgender people. And so when President Trump abruptly announced, via Twitter, a ban on military service by transgender people, Washington was dumbstruck.

But Mr. Trump had political reasons to play that card. Foremost, the president needs a legislative victory, and by giving House conservatives what they wanted on transgender troops, he has paved the way for passage of a key military spending bill. That bill includes funding for the wall on the US-Mexico border.

A secondary benefit, Republican analysts say, is a boost to the morale of social conservative voters. Frustration has been rising over Trump’s inability to effect much of his agenda, and there’s concern that turnout could be low in next year’s midterm elections. Lack of enthusiasm by conservative voters could cost Republicans control of the House.

“The top issue is getting the defense budget through, and getting legislative wins. You’ve got to trade,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “This is a casualty of politics, not a casualty of Trump being anti-gay.”

Trump’s sudden announcement Wednesday was tempered a bit Thursday, when the nation’s top general announced that current policy would remain in effect until the secretary of Defense had received the president’s direction and had issued implementation guidance.

Read more from Linda Feldmann at the Christian Science Monitor

 U.S. Republican Party (GOP) took the Senate Tuesday in a landslide victory, and while the shift may not spark a foreign policy overhaul, the now GOP-led Congress will pressure the White House over Iran, military cuts and terrorism, experts said.

The GOP win will spark a reshuffling of a number of Senate committees, with Republican Senator Bob Corker widely expected to take the helm of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. At the same time, GOP Senator and 2008 White House contender John McCain will step up to head the Senate Arms Services Committee and pressure the White House over Iran's nuclear program.

While Tehran says its program is peaceful, Washington says the program is aimed at generating nuclear weapons, and Republicans have blasted President Barack Obama for his administration's desire to ease sanctions on Iran during negotiations.

Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said the Senate could delay or try to reverse some of the military cuts scheduled to take place."Obviously this crew wants to pummel IS," he said of the GOP Senate leaders' stance toward the terrorists that are ravaging Iraq.

"What you are going to hear out of McCain and to some extent Corker is making sure the military is doing what it needs to do to contain or push back IS," he said.

Read more from Mathew Rusling at Xinhua

From Gallup's Frank Newport:

U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge.

Veterans in the U.S. today are mostly male and two-thirds are aged 50 or older. In a population that is currently evenly split in its preferences for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney for president, veterans stand out for their 24-point preference for Romney. About a fourth of men are veterans, and it is their strong skew toward Romney that essentially creates the GOP candidate's leading position among men today. Among nonveteran men, Obama and Romney are essentially tied.

Veterans' strong preference for Romney in this election occurs even though Romney himself is not a military veteran -- though Obama shares this nonveteran status. This will be the first election since World War II in which neither major-party candidate is a veteran.

Barring unforeseen developments such as the re-institution of the military draft, the proportion of the male population in this country that will have served in the armed forces will decrease in the years ahead as the older population dominated by veterans dies off. These data suggest that Democrats could get an overall boost from this demographic phenomenon as these apparently reliable Republican voters become a smaller and smaller proportion of the population.