Donald Trump has said that the White House chief of staff John Kelly will leave his post by the end of the year and that he will name is replacement within days.

“John Kelly will be leaving, I don’t know if I can say retiring, but he will be leaving by the end of the year,” Mr Trump told reporters. “He is a great guy ... I appreciate his service very much.”

t is reported that Mr Trump is expected to name Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.

Mr Trump said the replacement named might serve in an interim capacity for the time being.

In July, General Kelly announced to White House staff that Mr Trump had asked him to stay on as chief of staff until at least 2020, and that he had agreed.

General Kelly, who was formerly Mr Trump’s head of the Department of Homeland Security, was brought in as chief of staff after the president fired his first chief of staff, Reince Pribus.

Gen. Kelly was reportedly close to resigning in October after he got into a heated shouting match with national security adviser John Bolton.

Mr Bolton had criticised Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during an Oval Office discussion about the border, and Gen. Kelly stormed out of the West Wing after their profanity-laced argument spilt over into the hallways.

Mr Trump and General Kelly’s relationship has soured to the point where the two men no longer speak.