The era of retired Marine Corps four-star General John Kelly as White House chief of staff has either failed to stop infighting between factions, or accelerated it because he is backing one side.

A blockbuster report from the conservative insider magazine The Weekly Standard says groups allied with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster on one side and alt-right gadfly Steve Bannon on the other have "gone to the mattresses" - borrowing a term from the book and movie "The Godfather" describing an all out mob war.

Kelly might have thrown in with his fellow retired General McMaster, who has sacked four Bannon loyalists in the last few weeks.  It's leading to speculation as to whether Bannon is the next one to get the boot.

Bannon is retaliating is retaliating in the media and online.  An ally in talk radio tweeted a months-old article from the New York Times about McMaster's "break with the administration on Islam".  And a right-wing blogger associated with Bannon is tweeting links to a website called McMasterLeaks, which "contains a single blog post with multiple examples of how McMaster is undermining Trump".

Kelly moved into the Chief of Staff gig after Trump fired Reince Priebus who was kneecapped by Anthony "Da Mooch" Scaramucci, who was also fired by the administration a couple of days later.