Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to leave on his own accord, according to two Republicans close to the White House. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo White House Trump Cabinet exodus likely after midterms After two years of already high turnover, the president is expected to push out or accept the resignations of several more department chiefs by January.

President Donald Trump could see up to six Cabinet officials depart in the weeks after next month’s midterm elections, according to interviews with a half-dozen current and former Trump officials and Republicans close to the White House.

For a president who has already shed or shuffled eight Cabinet officials, that would make for the highest turnover rate in recent history.


It would also be a major disruption even by the standards of an ever-churning administration — possibly creating new confusion across departments and agencies and risking multiple bloody Senate confirmation fights.

The list includes Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who announced last month that she will depart by the end of the year, with no replacement in line. Trump is widely expected to oust Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he has criticized for months. Others who appear most likely to depart, according to administration sources and White House advisers, include Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a close ally of chief of staff John Kelly.

Trump allies said that in choosing replacements the president will have a particular focus on how potential Cabinet members might benefit him politically.

“The president is looking to get better performers — all of these decisions are being made in the context of the reelection campaign,” said one Republican close to the White House. “Trump wants the strongest possible A-team going into 2020.”

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A White House spokesman declined to comment, saying the administration is focused on the midterms.

The two-year mark of any administration offers a natural break in which Cabinet officials depart. The incentive to leave would grow if Democrats win control of the House, giving them control of oversight committees — and the power to drag top Trump officials to Capitol Hill for televised grillings.

But the Trump Cabinet has already been unusually beset during its 21 months in office by high turnover, Cabinet officials sparring with White House staff, and ethical questions arising from the conduct of its officials.

The casualties so far include a secretary of State, an Environmental Protection Agency administrator, a secretary of Health and Human Services, a secretary of Veterans Affairs, and a chief of staff. Two of Trump’s early Cabinet secretaries, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and former DHS Secretary John Kelly, also shifted jobs internally, with Pompeo becoming secretary of State and Kelly taking over as White House chief of staff.

In many cases, the exits unfolded in a spectacular and all-too-public fashion.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, for instance, was fired by presidential tweet on a random Tuesday after months during which Tillerson clashed with Trump son-in-law and top White House adviser Jared Kushner, and amid plummeting morale at this agency.

Shortly after his forced departure, former Veterans Affairs chief David Shulkin aired his grievances in a New York Times op-ed, writing that his former department had “become entangled in a brutal power struggle with some political appointees choosing to promote their agendas instead of what’s best for veterans.”

Haley is the rare official to leave on her own terms — with a fawning Oval Office sendoff from the president, in exchange for her public declaration that she’d campaign for him in 2020.

Many officials expect that Sessions, whom Trump has openly criticized for months, could be the first to go and might be fired by tweet. Trump has complained bitterly about Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, which the president blames for the sprawling probe by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Underscoring the likelihood of a Sessions exit is the fact that the White House has a new name in the mix for his replacement: Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a former U.S. attorney and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, according to one Republican close to the White House.

Mattis is expected to leave of his own accord, according to two Republicans close to the White House — a possibility Trump foreshadowed when he sought to distance himself from the general during a “60 Minutes” interview by referring to Mattis publicly as a “Democrat,” a diss in the Trump playbook.

“I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That’s Washington,” Trump said during the interview when asked specifically about Mattis.

Zinke is expected to change agencies or leave the administration altogether, thanks to his grander political ambitions — or the numerous ethical investigations that have dogged his tenure at Interior.

Questions have swirled among White House staff for months about whether Trump will finally get rid of Ross, whose negotiating skills on trade deals Trump has belittled, calling the Commerce secretary “past his prime” and “not a killer” during Oval Office meetings. Aides wonder whether Trump will finally act on finding himself a new Commerce secretary after months of griping.

And Trump is constantly frustrated with Nielsen for her inability to control the number of immigrants attempting to cross the U.S. border. If Kelly leaves at some point as chief of staff, Nielsen — as his closest ally — is expected to follow.

In the president’s first two years in office, his Cabinet has seen far greater turnover than those of presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama over the same time period, according to a Cabinet tracker by the Brookings Institution.

“Getting people vetted and confirmed is no easy thing, even if the Republicans keep their majority in the Senate,” said Chris Lu, White House Cabinet secretary during Obama’s first term. “It could be well into 2019 before the president has a full Cabinet that is up to speed and carrying out his agenda.”

White House staff members have felt exasperated over the past two years by a Cabinet that has felt uncontrollable. While Cabinet officials are always quick to offer pledges of loyalty to Trump during in-person meetings in the Cabinet room, some Trump aides have complained that some of those same officials show little interest in traveling to promote the president’s legislative and political agenda.

Nor have Cabinet officials always accepted the help or advice of the White House communications and press team to prep for contentious hearings, or media interviews.

The goal for 2020 is to ensure that the Cabinet is a political asset — not a source of embarrassing headlines.

White House staffers had to offer numerous sessions on ethics rules for Cabinet officials, particularly in the wake of episodes like former HHS Secretary Tom Price’s taxpayer-funded travel on private planes, which led to his ouster, and controversy over HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s purchase of expensive office furniture.

“We wanted to reaffirm the importance of appearances,” said one former senior administration official, with regard to Cabinet officials using private security teams or even flying first-class.

Kelly has often acted as the enforcer in private conversations with Cabinet members including Zinke, Carson, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

Since those conversations with Kelly, Carson and Perry have mostly managed to avoid negative headlines — and Trump now largely ignores their departments as a result, said current and former administration officials.

“A lot of his problem children are gone, and that is a relief,” said one former senior administration official.

Despite the chaos and turnover to date, Republicans close to the White House feel confident that Cabinet jobs retain a powerful allure for members of Congress, business leaders and Republican donors.

Still, it could be hard for Trump to attract top talent, especially given the reputational damage suffered by numerous officials who have churned through his administration.

Some job candidates might also be wary of the Senate confirmation process, especially if Democrats see their numbers grow and feel emboldened after Election Day.

But if the administration’s goal is a kind of malign neglect of most agencies that ultimately shrinks the size of the federal workforce, then landing top-flight Cabinet officials might not be necessary, said Lu.

“Agencies tend to have a much smaller role in Republican administrations. They are rolling back regulations but not really doing new rules. A lot of the programs can run on autopilot with the career staff,” Lu added.