The larger GOP margin in the Senate is especially important because Trump might now have the votes to confirm a new attorney general. Before the election, Republicans had warned Trump not to replace Sessions when they did not have the votes—a deficit that was due to the political blowback that would come if the president tried to oust Sessions in a transparent bid to curtail the Mueller investigation.

Sessions’s departure likely will be the first of several in the Cabinet and the senior White House staff. Reports of a looming shakeup have circulated for weeks, and Trump did little to douse them at a press conference on Wednesday. “It is no great secret,” he said. “A lot of administrations make changes after the midterms. For the most part, I am very very happy with this Cabinet.”

Trump already has to fill one vacancy created by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s announcement last month that she would leave her post at the end of the year. The president is expected to name a new nominees in the next few days.

Sessions will be the eighth Cabinet-level official to leave a post during Trump’s first two years in office. Several have resigned or been fired in scandal, while two, former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, secured promotions as part of the shuffling.

The Cabinet shuffle still pales in comparison to the high turnover among the White House senior staff, which has seen the departures via resignation or firing of the chief of staff, the chief strategist, the press secretary, multiple communications directors, and other top officials.

All the changes have kept the Senate busy confirming new Trump nominees. But Trump will have an easier time confirming replacements come January, when the Republican majority expands from 51-49 seats to either 53 or 54 as a result of gains made in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Department of State

Original secretary: Rex Tillerson

Trump’s replacement: Mike Pompeo

Reason for change: Tillerson had been on the outs for months with Trump. He reportedly called him “a moron” in a meeting last summer, and the two diverged on key policy issues and global hot spots like Iran, Russia, and North Korea.

Background: Trump plucked Pompeo out of relative obscurity as a three-term congressman from Kansas when he nominated him to lead the CIA. Pompeo has loyally toed the president’s line on everything from intelligence matters to the question of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Before running for Congress, Pompeo served in the Army and then started an aerospace and private-security firm.

Government experience: A little over a year as CIA director, and six years in the House before that

Why Trump likes him: Pompeo is loyal. Trump and Tillerson disagreed on several important issues, including the Iran deal, the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, and, more recently, the president’s approach to North Korea. Trump told reporters that by contrast, he and Pompeo have “a very similar thought process.”