“Everyone wants to work at the White House,” President Trump said in March after the sudden departures of Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn and White House Communications Director Hope Hicks. But a VICE News review of administration turnover since he took office in January 2017 shows another Trump quote better sums up what it's like to work in his administration: “You’re fired.”
In the year and 50 or so days since Donald Trump became president of the United States, his administration has fired or lost dozens of major staffers — including four communications directors, an FBI director, a press secretary, a chief of staff, and a secretary of state. The Brookings Institution estimated in March that 42 percent of top White House positions had turned over since Trump took office, more than the first two years of the Obama or George W. Bush administrations.
Who's next? Probably National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, or even White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Below is a running list of cabinet members, notable White House officials, and major administration figures who have been fired by the president famous for firing people, pressured to resign, or walked out the door on their own accord.
2017
Department:
Department of Justice
Title: Acting Attorney General
Fired: Jan. 30
Reason: She told Justice Department attorneys that they should not defend Trump’s travel ban in court.
Department:White House
Title: National Security Adviser
Resignation announced: Feb. 13
Reason: He allegedly lied to Mike Pence about conversations he’d had with the Russians.
Department: White House
Title: Deputy Chief of Staff
Resignation revealed: March 30
Reason: Trump sent her to work for an outside pro-Trump lobbying group.
Department: White House
Title: Deputy National Security Adviser
Resignation revealed: Jan. 30
Reason: She was set to become ambassador to Singapore, but withdrew her nomination after her role in the Trump campaign’s Russia scandal came under scrutiny.
Department: FBI
Title: Director
Fired: May 9
Reason: Officially, Comey got the axe because of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Trump later said on NBC that he fired Comey, in part, because of “this Russia thing.”
Department: White House
Title: Communications Director
Resignation announced: May 30
Reason: "A number of reasons — for personal reasons," he said. Trump was reportedly upset by comments Dubke made about Trump’s policy. “There is no Trump doctrine,” Dubke said.
Department: White House
Title: Spokesman for Trump’s legal team
Resignation revealed: July 20
Reason: Corallo was reportedly frustrated with conflict inside of the White House and worried that Trump was obstructing justice.
Department: White House
Title: Press Secretary and Communications Director
Resignation announced: July 21
Reason: Spicer reportedly didn’t agree with Trump’s decision to hire Anthony Scaramucci as his communications director.
Department: White House
Title: Press Aide
Resignation announced: July 25
Reason: Anthony Scaramucci had threatened to fire Short over alleged leaks.
Department: National Security Council
Title: Member
Fired: July 27
Reason: Removed by new national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Although he was supposed to be reassigned, he joined a congressional committee investigating Trump’s ties to Russia.
Department: White House
Title: Chief of Staff
Fired: July 28
Reason: Trump replaced him with John Kelly after just 6 months on the job. Priebus had a longstanding feud with Anthony Scaramucci.
Department: White House
Title: Communications Director
Fired: July 31
Reason: He gave an extremely lewd interview to the New Yorker where he criticized other White House staffers, so Trump’s new chief of staff ousted him. Scaramucci lasted 11 days on the job.
Department: National Security Council
Title: Senior Director
Fired: Aug. 2
Reason: H.R. McMaster was reportedly working to rid the council of Flynn appointees.
Department: National Security Council
Title: Director of Strategic Planning
Firing revealed: Aug. 11
Reason: Fired for a memo alleging a "deep state" and leftist conspiracy to remove Trump from office.
Department: Office of Public Liaison
Title: Director
Departure revealed: Aug. 18
Reason: Alleged dysfunction at the Office of Public Liaison.
Department: White House
Title: Chief Strategist
Fired: Aug. 18
Reason: The Trump administration officially said that Bannon and John Kelly mutually agreed upon Bannon’s departure, but reports from inside the White House say Bannon was fired.
Department: White House
Title: Special Adviser
Resignation Announced: Aug. 18
Reason: Famed corporate raider explained: “I did not want partisan bickering about my role to in any way cloud your administration."
Department: White House
Title: Deputy Assistant to the President
Fired: Aug. 25
Reason: Chief of staff John Kelly reportedly wasn’t pleased with Gorka’s work in the White House.
Department: White House
Title: Deputy Assistant to the President
Resigned: Sep. 20
Reason: He was reportedly upset with his paycheck, which was much smaller than it was at the Trump Organization. Strangely, the RNC is still reportedly paying him $15,000 a month.
Department: Department of Health and Human Services
Title: Secretary
Resigned: Sep. 29
Reason: Price caused controversy over his private air travel that was financed by taxpayer money, for trips that often involved personal tasks — like taking his son to lunch in Nashville.
Department: Department of Homeland Security
Title: Director of the DHS’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Resigned: Nov. 17
Reason: Audio revealed that Johnson once said that “it’s an indictment of America’s black community that has turned America’s major cities into slums because of laziness, drug use and sexual promiscuity.”
Department: White House
Title: Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy
Resignation Announced: Dec. 8
Reason: The White House said that Powell had always planned to stay on at the White House for just a year.
Department: Office of Public Liaison
Title: Communications Director
Fired: Dec. 13
Reason: Official word is that Omarosa resigned “to pursue other opportunities” — but reports say she was escorted off the White House grounds while screaming and cursing.
Department: White House
Title: Deputy Chief of Staff
Resignation revealed: Dec. 21
Reason: He wanted to return to the private sector.
Department: White House
Title: Economic adviser
Resignation revealed: Dec. 22
Reason: He planned on a career at the White House that would last only a year.
2018
Department: Corporation for National and Community Service
Title: Chief of External Affairs
Resignation announced: Jan. 19
Reason: CNN uncovered racist, sexist, and homophobic comments he made while working as a radio host.
Department: Office of National Drug Control Policy
Title: Deputy Chief of Staff
Resignation announced: Jan. 24
Reason: There was controversy surrounding his hiring — he was just 24 years old and had almost no professional experience.
Department: FBI
Title: FBI Deputy Director
Resignation announced: Jan. 29
Reason: His retirement date was approaching, but McCabe was also a frequent target of President Trump’s. Trump had even threatened McCabe’s job on Twitter.
Department: White House
Title: Staff Secretary
Resigned: Feb. 7
Reason: Two ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse.
Department: White House
Title: Deputy Communications Director
Resignation Announced: Feb. 27
Reason: Although he said the reason was to return to the private sector, some have speculated that Raffel departed because of political differences: He is a Democrat who previously worked for Jared Kushner’s family.
Department: White House
Title:Communications Director
Resignation Announced: Feb. 28
Reason: Hicks announced her resignation soon after her relationship with Rob Porter became public.
Department: National Economic Council
Title: Director
Resignation Announced: March 6
Reason: Cohn was reportedly furious that Trump imposed steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Department: White House
Title: Personal Assistant
Fired: March 13
Reason: McEntee was escorted from the White House grounds after he failed to get security clearance because of financial problems in his past.
Department: State Department
Title: Secretary of State
Fired: March 13
Reason: Trump and Tillerson’s relationship had been rocky for months due to style differences, so Trump fired him and let him know via Twitter.
Department: State Department
Title: Undersecretary of State
Fired: March 13
Reason: He contradicted the White House statement on Tillerson’s firing by saying that Tillerson found out because Trump tweeted about it.
Department: Department of Veterans Affairs
Title: Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Fired: March 28
Reason: President Trump replaced him with White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson