Trump justified the instability, saying: "We have acting people. The reason they are acting is because I'm seeing how I like them, and I'm liking a lot of them very, very much. There are people who have done a bad job, and I let them go. If you call that turmoil, I don't call that turmoil. I say that is being smart. That's what we do."[4]
For comprehensiveness, the list below includes, in addition to dismissals and resignations, routine job changes such as promotions (e.g., Gina Haspel from CIA Deputy Director to Director), officials moving to a comparable position (e.g., John F. Kelly from Secretary of Homeland Security to Chief of Staff), and acting or temporary officials being replaced by permanent ones. The list does not include many lower-level positions, however, such as that of executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Matthew Doherty, whom Trump dismissed in November 2019,[5] without a replacement to lead the council that was created in 1987. But some less prominent officials are listed because their departure was newsworthy.
On March 28, 2018, Trump announced on Twitter that Shulkin had been fired.[6][7] Following his dismissal, controversy erupted about efforts by the White House to privatize VA healthcare[8] and Shulkin's allegedly inappropriate taxpayer-funded foreign trips.[9]
Resigned in January 2018 after racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT comments, and comments about fellow veterans with PTSD, came to light.[22][23]
Terminated without cause by the Trump Administration hours before acting Administrator John Barsa reached the maximum amount of time allowed to serve in that position without Senate confirmation under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.[42][43][44]
Dozens of Trump administration officeholders resigned in reaction to the Capitol storming, even though their terms in office would expire fourteen days later with the inauguration of President Biden. Some senior officials, however, decided against resigning in order to ensure an "orderly transition of power" to the incoming Biden administration, out of concern that Trump would replace them with loyalist lower-level staffers who they feared could carry out illegal orders given by him.[51]
Became the first cabinet member to announce her resignation, effective on January 11;[56] was criticized by US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for resigning rather than voting to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.[57]
^Coats or Gordon may be the "senior national security official" who told Jake Tapper: "Everyone at this point ignores what the president says and just does their job. The American people should take some measure of confidence in that."
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