A year into his first term, President Trump is on his second White House chief of staff, second national security adviser, third deputy national security adviser, second press secretary, fifth communications director, and second HHS secretary, and that doesn't count all the vacancies. The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, is also in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and John DeStefano oversees three White House offices: personnel, public liaison, and political affairs. This isn't normal, says Peter Baker at The New York Times.
"We have vacancies on top of vacancies," Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who has studied White House turnover at the Brookings Institution, tells the Times. In fact, more than a third of Trump's hires have left, and "some administration officials privately spend much of their time trying to figure out how to leave without looking disloyal or provoking an easily angered president," the Times reports:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Kerala: one Indian state, four exhilarating waysThe Week Recommends The southwestern region pretty much has it all, from beachfront, to port metropolis, to verdant mountainside
-
Is a high-yield savings account worth having?The Explainer They can pay up to 10 times more than a standard savings account
-
Crossword: April 15, 2024The Week's daily crossword
-
US, Israel brace for Iran retaliatory strikesSpeed Read An Iranian attack on Israel is believed to be imminent
-
Congress honors real-life Rosie the RivetersSpeed Read These American women reshaped the work force during World War II
-
Outgunned Ukraine could fall, US general warnsSpeed Read Without more US aid, Ukraine is at risk of losing the war
-
House GOP scuttles FISA vote at Trump's urgingSpeed Read Right-wing lawmakers blocked Speaker Mike Johnson's surveillance bill
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion banSpeed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
-
Biden pitches student loan forgiveness for millionsSpeed Read The latest relief plan would benefit nearly 30 million borrowers
-
Israel's 'tactical' withdrawalSpeed Read Six months after the Hamas attack, Israel announced it was withdrawing some troops from Gaza
-
No Labels, no presidential candidate this yearSpeed Read The group has abandoned its efforts to run a third-party campaign
