Trump lost a record number of officials in his first year. Here are the major departures from the White House and beyond

If you’re having trouble keeping track of all the staffers leaving the Trump White House of late, you could certainly be forgiven. A recent analysis by the Brookings Institution found that Donald Trump’s team has had a record number of departures, with a turnover rate twice as high as that of the Reagan administration.

That rate leapt a little higher on Tuesday morning when homeland security adviser Tom Bossert resigned.

“People will always come & go …” Trump tweeted last month, noting: “I still have some people that I want to change (always seeking perfection).”

He added: “So many people want to come in. I have a choice of anybody. I could take any position in the White House and I’ll have a choice of the 10 top people having to do with that position – everybody wants to be there.”

Here’s a few people who didn’t want to be there – or who Trump has shown the door.

Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom Bossert. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A veteran of the George W Bush Administration, Bossert became the second official with national security duties to resign after John Bolton took up his post as Trump’s national security adviser. Though less well-known than many of Trump’s recent departures, Bossert was influential in crafting key pieces of the administration’s agenda. According to the Washington Post he was well-like by chief of staff John Kelly and by Trump himself, as he “often defended Trump’s agenda in meetings and in interviews with the media”.

Bossert’s most public role came during hurricane season last summer, when he frequently briefed the media about responses to catastrophic damage from storms Harvey, Irma and Maria.

David Shulkin, veterans affairs director

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Shulkin. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

28 March 2018 Shulkin, who also served as the VA director in the Obama administration, was the only Trump cabinet pick to be confirmed unanimously in the Senate. Rumors swirled for months before his dismissal of a toxic atmosphere in the department, with Shulkin banning some employees from his floor and keeping an armed guard outside his office during the work day. He did not deny those rumors in an interview with the Washington Post in mid-March.

He was probably not long for the role after a February inspector general’s report suggested Shulkin inappropriately used taxpayer money to fund a trip to Europe for his wife and lied to cover it up.

HR McMaster, national security adviser

Facebook Twitter Pinterest HR McMaster. Photograph: Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images

22 March 2018 Like most Trump departures, there were murmurs for months that McMaster, who remains an active duty lieutenant general in the US army, was considering taking his leave. McMaster succeeded the short-lived national security tenure of fellow Trump castoff Michael Flynn but was never considered a great personality or ideological fit with Trump, despite the president’s professed fondness for generals.

Far-right Trump associates and boosters such as Steve Bannon and Mike Cernovich repeatedly accused McMaster of undermining Trump and being hostile to elements of his agenda. McMaster and the president were reportedly at odds over key foreign policy issues involving North Korea and Russia. McMaster will be replaced my the former UN ambassador John Bolton, who, while a more doctrinaire hawkish conservative than McMaster, is also widely regarded as a bad personal fit with Trump.

McMaster will officially leave the White House job and the US army on 9 April.

Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andrew McCabe. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

16 March 2018 Among the most personal and seemingly vindictive of the Trump departures, McCabe was fired 28-odd hours before he was scheduled to retire with his pension from the FBI. The former deputy director had already resigned his post in January after repeated public chiding, usually on Twitter by Trump, who accused him of being politically compromised because his wife had taken campaign donations from key Democrats for a state senate race she ran. He was on paid leave at the time he was fired by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for “misleading investigators”.

McCabe has suggested that his dismissal was part of an effort to undermine the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the US election and potential collusion between Trump aides and Moscow. McCabe would probably be a key witness in any criminal proceedings.

Rex Tillerson, secretary of state

Play Video 1:05 Rex Tillerson: 'I'll return to private life proud to have served my country' – video

13 March 2018 Tillerson had reportedly been mulling departure from the administration since the summer, according to an October NBC News report which said that Vice-President Mike Pence had to talk the US top diplomat out of leaving. Trump fired him anyway.

Tensions had been simmering between the former oil executive Tillerson, and the president ever since it was reported that Tillerson called Trump a “fucking moron”. The tiff seemed to be indicative of a broader chasm, both in style and substance, between the two men. Trump may have wanted to drop Tillerson before a scheduled summit meeting with North Korea, an issue on which the president and secretary of state had repeatedly butted heads.

Gary Cohn, director of national economic council

Play Video 1:03 'Are you happy, Gary?': Trump's top economic adviser quits administration – video report

6 March 2018 Cohn probably lasted longer than anyone could have reasonably expected. In a White House aggressively staffed with family members and novice sycophants, the former Goldman Sachs No 2 was a rare, highly experienced professional. He was also a registered Democrat in an administration where bipartisanship has never been a particularly privileged part of the program. Cohn’s globalist leanings were always out of whack with Trump’s brand of economic protectionism, and he reportedly considered the president “dumb as shit”, according to the journalist Michael Wolff in his book Fire and Fury. Trump’s plan for tariffs on steel and aluminum were reportedly the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Hope Hicks, communications director

Play Video 0:45 'I wish the president the very best': Hope Hicks steps down – video

28 February 2018 Even in the Trump White House, where personnel attrition has become a defining feature, Hicks’s departure came as a surprise to many given her close relationship with the president, and meteoric rise within the Trump circle. Hicks, the administration’s fourth, and by far longest-surviving, communications director, had zero political experience when she joined the Trump campaign team in Iowa in 2015, but quickly gained Trump’s trust for decisiveness and unflappability, traits Trump strongly admires. According to some reports, the president also boosted Hicks early and often on account of her looks. Hicks was instrumental in crafting the White House’s defense around the Trump Tower meeting between members of the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, and admitted telling certain “white lies” on the president’s behalf during a recent marathon appearance before the House intelligence committee.

Rob Porter, staff secretary



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rob Porter. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

7 February 2018 Porter, who served as a senior aide to Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, resigned after both of his ex-wives went public with reports of domestic abuse. Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, told the Daily Mail that he was “verbally, emotionally and physically abusive”. His second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, made similar allegations and said she had filed an emergency protective order against Porter. It was later reported that Porter had been working with access to extremely sensitive government documents without a full security clearance, in large part because of the outstanding allegations against him. Kelly supported Porter personally as a friend and “trusted professional” but said: “There is no place for domestic violence in our society.”

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, director of communications for Office of Public Liaison

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Omarosa Manigault-Newman. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

13 December 2017 Omarosa, a Trump protege of Apprentice fame, never had an especially clear role in the administration, aside from being generally tapped by Trump for any issues involving black Americans. Sparing little time in her re-entry to reality television, Omarosa made waves weeks later on Celebrity Big Brother during a tearful confession with another contestant about why she joined the administration and how worried she was about its direction. “It’s going to not be OK. It’s not,” she said. “It’s so bad.”



Tom Price, health secretary

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom Price. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

29 September 2017 While many Trump departures have been dramatic and steeped in various flavors of soap opera-level intrigue, the departure of Price was much more typical of a presidential administration resignation. After it was revealed that the then head of health and human services had chartered private air travel for himself to the tune of more than $1m, Price apologized, offered to pay back the money and ultimately resigned. At the time Trump called Price a “very fine man” but said he did not like the “optics”, adding: “I’m not happy, OK?” Price was already on the ropes after multiple failed attempts by the Trump administration to deliver on its promise of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sebastian Gorka. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

25 August 2017 Like Steve Bannon, Gorka was a fringe rightwing presence in the Trump administration, and a person of questionable expertise on foreign policy and terrorism, the topics Trump tapped him to address. He frequently appeared as a surrogate for Trump on cable news, where he appeared to enjoy stirring controversy and making inflammatory statements. The New York Times reported that the president’s incoming chief of staff, John Kelly, personally forced Gorka out. Bannon was soon to follow.

Steve Bannon, chief strategist

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steve Bannon. Photograph: Moritz Hager/Reuters

18 August 2017 When Bannon left his role as White House chief strategist in August, he said that he would be “going to war for Trump against his opponents” from outside the administration. The former Breitbart publisher returned to the rightwing publication, saying: “I’ve got my hands back on my weapons.” But the political strategist quickly shot himself in the foot, providing some particularly spicy quotes about his former co-workers to Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff. Bannon quickly lost the support of Breitbart, Breitbart funder Rebekah Mercer and Trump himself, who gave his erstwhile aide the nickname “Sloppy Steve”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anthony Scaramucci. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

1 August 2017 He came, he mooched, he got fired. Anthony Scaramucci’s 10-day tenure as White House communications director will forever be remembered for his questionable decision to call a New Yorker reporter and unleash a profanity-laden tirade against other White House staffers. The embarrassing debacle proved exciting for news media standards editors tasked with deciding whether to print the phrase “I’m not trying to suck my own cock”, and left the administration in search of a communications director who understood the difference between talking to a reporter on or off the record.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reince Priebus. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

28 July 2017 It’s hard to point to a time during Reince Priebus’s seven-month stint as White House chief of staff that he wasn’t the subject of speculation about when he would be fired. The former Republican National Committee chairman was supposed to bring inside-the-beltway savvy to the Trumpian outsiders, but his tenure was largely notable for palace intrigue, political blunders and all-around chaos.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sean Spicer. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

21 July 2017 Spicer spent his first day on the job as White House press secretary berating journalists for reporting accurately on the size of Trump’s inauguration crowd. And things only went downhill from there. Spicer’s time at the podium did provide the American public with some fascinating teachable moments on issues such as the proper term for Nazi concentration camps (hint: it’s not “Holocaust centers”) and the precise distinction between a wall and a fence. Spicer resigned after disagreeing with Trump over his decision to hire Scaramucci, thereby saving himself the humiliation of having to explain that whole situation to the White House press corps.

Michael Flynn, national security adviser

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michael Flynn. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

14 February 2017 The former general’s stint as national security adviser was brief – just 23 days – but Flynn’s presence still haunts the White House. That’s because Flynn, who resigned after it was revealed that he had misled the vice-president, Mike Pence, about his communications with the Russian ambassador, struck a plea deal in December with special counsel Robert Mueller. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and pledged “full cooperation” with Mueller in his Russian interference investigation.

Sally Yates, acting attorney general

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sally Yates. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

31 January 2017 An Obama administration holdover, Yates served as acting attorney general while Jeff Sessions’s nomination for that office made its way through Congress. On principle, Yates declined to enforce Trump’s proposed travel ban, writing in a letter that she was not “convinced that the executive order is lawful”. Although she was fired within hours and accused of “betrayal” by the White House, a series of federal judges would go on to agree with Yates.