By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-23 15:42:05 | Updated at 2026-07-23 18:08:41
2 hours ago
Donald Trump's White House is hemorrhaging senior officials at six times the rate of his three predecessors, with 27 Senate-confirmed appointees walking out in 18 months as he heads into a brutal midterm fight.
George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden averaged just 4.3 departures at the same stage of their terms, according to a Partnership for Public Service analysis. Trump's own first term produced 11.
The 27 departures equate to 11.4 percent of all Senate-confirmed officials in Cabinet departments. Biden's figure at the same point was 0.4 percent, according to the analysis first reported by The Hill.
Four left in the first two weeks of July alone, including Energy Department finance chief Tina Pierce and Major General John Bartrum, undersecretary of health at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Those who quit lasted eight months in the job on average, having waited an average of nearly five months to be confirmed in the first place. For 30 percent of them, the wait was longer than the job.
The heads of the CDC, the FDA, the IRS and the Department of the Navy have all gone, along with two deputy secretaries, four general counsels and three undersecretaries.
Six officials have left the Treasury under Scott Bessent and four have quit Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kristi Noem was ousted from Homeland Security in late March amid mounting criticism of her handling of the immigration crackdown.
Trump and First Lady Melania on May 19 as the President hosts the congressional picnic at the White House
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles looks at her phone during a speech of U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 11
Pam Bondi went as frustration built over the Justice Department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned from Labor in April after becoming the target of misconduct investigations.
Bondi's replacement is still not confirmed. Trump nominated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the job full-time last month, and the Senate Judiciary Committee votes Thursday on sending him to the floor.
Tulsi Gabbard quit as Director of National Intelligence on May 22, stating that her husband had been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. But her exit, effective June 30, followed months of friction over Iran.
Trump handed the job on an acting basis to Bill Pulte, the Florida real estate executive who ran the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
That appointment drew immediate fire from GOP senators, and Trump was forced to tell reporters in the Oval Office that 'he is not going to be permanent.'
Gabbard was not the only intelligence official to walk. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in March saying he 'cannot in good conscience' back the war.
The empty desks are not being filled as Trump has put forward just 578 nominees to Senate-confirmed posts, the fewest since at least Ronald Reagan and 14 percent below the average of his predecessors going back that far. Since January 1 he has put up just 126.
The gaps get filled by acting officials Trump can install himself, with no Senate hearing, no confirmation vote and often no public announcement of who is in the chair.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears for an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, March 3
US Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference to announce the guilty plea of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismel "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia, in New York City on August 25, 2025
The White House hiring operation is being stretched thin as just nine staff are tasked with recruiting and vetting candidates for thousands of government jobs, five of them in post less than a year. Obama had 14 and Biden 17.
The churn comes as Trump is heading into November midterm elections with the Iran war weighing heavily on the administration.
The President's approval sits at 44 percent against 56 percent disapproval, according to a Daily Mail/JL Partners poll of 1,021 registered voters taken between July 17 and 20.
Democrats hold a nine-point lead on the midterm ballot among likely voters, 50 percent to 41.
Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, now say launching military action in Iran was the wrong thing to do. Only 32 percent say it was right.
The economy is even bleaker with 51 percent saying Trump is doing a bad job as oil soared to $100 per barrel on Thursday after Houthi strikes on two Saudi tankers.
One job has seen no turnover at all: chief of staff.
Susie Wiles has held the post for the entirety of the second term, already outlasting the four men who cycled through it between 2017 and 2021.
The Daily Mail revealed in June that Wiles, 69, is quietly planning her exit after the midterms, according to five insiders, frustrated by Trump's recent Cabinet appointments and drained by cancer treatment.
Wiles denied claims of a rift with the President as 'outlandish' and 'absolutely' untrue, and posted on X after publication that she is 'not going anywhere.'
Trump dismissed near-identical criticism of high turnover during his first administration.
'People will always come and go... There is no chaos, only great energy!' he said at the time.
The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.
