U.S. President Donald Trump has lost four senior aides in the span of a month, leaving gaps in core White House operations ahead of November's midterm elections.
Trump has parted with his chief spokeswoman, his top legal adviser, a key national security aide and his director of legislative affairs over the past month, Bloomberg reported on the 31st. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, often described as Trump's voice, said this month she would step down at the end of August. A week later, James Braid, the director of legislative affairs and the administration's main channel to Congress, announced plans to resign within weeks. Successors for both have yet to be named.
Andy Baker, the deputy national security adviser who was directly involved in negotiations with Iran, and White House counsel David Warrington have already left their posts. People familiar with the matter said several additional senior officials are considering departures in the coming months.
Staff turnover before midterm elections is routine, but the back-to-back resignations of core aides are unusual. The successive departures of Leavitt and Braid, in particular, were seen as unexpected.
The exodus of senior staff comes as political pressure on the administration mounts. Republicans face the prospect of losing their congressional majority in November, which would expose the White House to subpoenas and investigations from a Democratic-led Congress.
Entering the final two years of his term, Trump is contending with historically low approval ratings, a shaky economy and an unpopular war with Iran that has rattled global energy markets. He has entered a new trade war with Canada and has taken a hard line toward South Korea, a longtime ally.
Finding replacements is also proving difficult. Marc Short, who served in Trump's first administration, said that if the first vetting process asked whether candidates believed the 2020 election was stolen, "the second-term pool started out small and is getting smaller now."
Aides See Departure Before the Election as the Right Moment
White House staff jobs are known for their punishing workloads. The director of legislative affairs post that Braid held is among the most grueling in the administration, requiring round-the-clock shuttling between Congress and the White House to reconcile lawmakers' demands and push legislation. Leavitt, the former press secretary, also cited the intense workload and child-care demands. She will continue working with MAGA Inc., a super PAC aligned with Trump, but her days as a close-in aide are over.
Some observers said the departures have accelerated as expectations grow that the president's party will lose the midterms. A defeat would drain legislative momentum and raise the risk of a lame-duck period. That, they said, makes stepping down with policy accomplishments in hand — before the results come in — the opportune moment.
Still, the loss of Trump's closest aides raises concerns about vacancies in key offices. Trump is not in a hurry to name Leavitt's replacement, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House is considering rotating Cabinet members through the briefing room, as it did when she took maternity leave earlier this year.
Lisa Camooso Miller, a former communications director at the Republican National Committee, said this is "without a doubt the hardest time to recruit people into an administration." She added: "The real question is who is going to fill these jobs, whether they are the right people and whether they are people the president will listen to."
The administration has also moved to strengthen its political operation ahead of the elections. In April, it announced that deputy chief of staff James Blair would temporarily leave the White House to lead the president's political organization. More recently, veteran aides including Jason Miller and Johnny DeStefano were brought back to focus on midterm messaging. Cabinet secretary Will Scharf has been tapped to succeed Warrington as White House counsel, a choice a White House official described as preparation for the flood of congressional investigations that would follow a Democratic takeover of the House.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, said the moves are "bigger than any one staffer, and the president's mission to make America greater than ever before will continue without wavering."
