Many administrations have high turnovers but the Trump Administration seems to have the most so far. This could be a good or bad sign. Bill Clinton had a high turnover yet he went onto win another term. George H.W. Bush 41 did not have any turnovers and was sharp and focused yet he was defeated after one term.
President Trump announced Saturday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be stepping down from his post at the end of the year, amid a number of ethics controversies.
“Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” he tweeted. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.”
Zinke did have a lot of controversy associated with him and took advantage of his time by using a lot of the Departments funds for his own use.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, welcomed the news of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s upcoming departure from the Trump cabinet, calling him “toxic” and declaring that the “swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him.”
“Ryan Zinke was one of the most toxic members of the cabinet in the way he treated our environment, our precious public lands, and the way he treated the government like it was his personal honey pot. The swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him,” Schumer said in a statement.
Zinke has been plagued by media and investigator scrutiny into his travel spending, political activity and decisions as interior secretary. He has come under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel and the DOI inspector general at least 15 times. The same two watchdogs investigated the four prior DOI secretaries a total of 11 times.
Zinke’s departure marks the latest shakeup in the Trump administration. Last week Trump announced that Chief of Staff John Kelly would be resigning by the end of the year, and announced Friday that Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney would step in as acting chief of staff.
He also announced that he had picked William Barr for attorney general after Jeff Sessions resigned in October, and State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to replace outgoing U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Energy Secretary Rex Tillerson also recently left.
Bloomberg News, which first reported Zinke’s resignation, reported that candidates who could replace him could include David Bernhardt, Zinke’s deputy, as well as former Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
There has been a 60% turnover in the last two years. I think there are several reasons for such a high turnover. One reason is many have said Trump is a hard person to work for. He is a real workaholic. He is so energetic and high maintenance and is always on the move and demanding that he exhausts everyone else. He only gets four hours of sleep a night and is up and working by 7 a. m and up until midnight constantly working.
Another reason is I don’t think he thoroughly vets everyone he hires or check into their backgrounds close enough since many of them all have some kind of baggage with them as you can see in the job descriptions and reasons for leaving I have listed below.
Newly appointed Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney once called Trump “a terrible human being” in a congressional debate a week before the 2016 election.
The State, a daily newspaper published in Columbia, South Carolina, reported on Mulvaney’s comments at the time, adding that he said Trump and Hillary Clinton represented “perhaps two of the most flawed human beings running for president in the history of the country.”
Mulvaney said he was supporting Trump despite the fact that he was a terrible human being and that Hilary Clinton would take the country in the wrong direction.
Mulvaney left his House seat the next year to serve Trump as both director of the Office of Management and Budget and Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
At least he was right on the fact about Hillary, but would Trump want someone as Chief of Staff who called him a terrible human being? I would think he would want someone who thinks more positively about him. I sense future conflicts here and Mulvaney may not last long If he keeps that attitude up.
Other people caught in the Trump turnover are:
David Shulkin
Role: Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Officially started: Feb. 14, 2017
Left: March 28, 2018, 408 days in his tenure.
A lone holdover from the Obama administration, Shulkin has butted heads with Trump over issues of veterans’ care, but it was an internal investigation alleging ethics violations and a misuse of taxpayer dollars that helped seal Shulkin’s fate.
H.R. McMaster
Role: National Security Adviser
Officially started: Feb. 20, 2017
Left: His resignation was announced on March 22, 2018, and will become effective on April 9, 2018. 413 days in his tenure
The White House confirmed that Gen. H.R. McMaster’s departure from the administration was mutually agreed upon. He was seen as adding a steady and intellectual voice to Trump’s security team, but the president chafed at his style and disposition in Oval Office briefings, the sources said. He also clashed with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and other top military brass, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Rex Tillerson
Role: secretary of state
Officially started: Feb. 1, 2017
Left: March 13, 2018 (though remaining during the transition, the White House said)
406 days in his tenure
Rex Tillerson became the second agency secretary to leave Trump’s Cabinet after the president announced he was being replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Tillerson and Trump have had tumultuous points in their relationship in the past. One public dispute came in October amid reports that Tillerson called the president a “moron.”
John McEntee
Role: personal aide
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: March 12, 2018
417 days in his tenure
John McEntee was escorted out of the White House March 12, 2018, sources told ABC News. There were issues with his background clearance, according to the sources.
Gary Cohn
Role: Director of the National Economic Council and the chief economic adviser to the president
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: His resignation was announced on March 6, 2018, and his last day was on March 8, 2018, 411 days in his tenure.
Cohn announced his resignation amid reported ongoing debate inside the White House about the taxes Trump proposed on aluminum and steel imports. Cohn was believed to be against the tariffs.
Hope Hicks
Role: Her most senior title was communications director
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: Her resignation was announced on Feb. 28, 2018, and her last day was March 29, 2018, 405 days in her tenure.
Hicks was Trump’s longest-serving aide when she announced that she will resign her post in the coming weeks.
Her announcement came the day after she was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee during which she said she had occasionally told white lies on Trump’s behalf, according to a source familiar with the interview. That said, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that her decision to resign was not related to the interview, saying that it’s “something she’s been thinking about for a while.”
Rob Porter
Role: White House staff secretary
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: Feb. 7, 2018, 384 days in his tenure
Porter resigned amid multiple allegations of domestic violence from two ex-wives. Porter has denied the accusations.
While senior White House staff were aware for months of the domestic abuse allegations by Porter’s ex-wives, they were not aware of the full extent of those allegations, senior administration officials told ABC News
Omarosa Manigault-Newman
Role: Director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: She resigned on Dec. 13, 2017, but remained a White House employee until Jan. 20, 2018, 366 days in her tenure
She was fired three times from various seasons of “The Apprentice,” but former reality star and Trump confidante Manigault-Newman said that she resigned, denying reports that she was fired and had to be removed from the White House.
(Why would Trump hire someone he fired three times before? She was obviously a troublemaker.)
Dina Powell
Role: Deputy national security adviser
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: Her departure was announced on Dec. 8, 2017, but she continued to serve in the White House until Jan. 12, 2018, according to Bloomberg, 358 days in her tenure.
The announcement of her departure came on Dec. 8, 2017, and her final day of work in the administration was not been publicly released.
Powell has been a key player in the administration’s Middle East policy, with senior adviser Jared Kushner releasing a statement saying that she “has been a valued member of the Israeli-Palestinian peace team.”
Tom Price
Role: Secretary of Health and Human Services
Officially started: Feb. 10, 2017
Left: Sept. 29, 2017, 232 days in his tenure.
Price resigned in the midst of a controversy over his use of private jets for government travel. The former congressman and orthopedic surgeon took as many as 26 chartered planes during his short tenure a spent an estimated $1 million of taxpayer money on both the domestic trips and military flights to Africa, Asia and Europe.
Sebastian Gorka
Role: Deputy assistant to the president
Hired: Jan. 30, 2017
Left: Aug. 25, 2017, 208 days in his tenure.
Gorka was a deputy adviser focused on national security and counterterrorism who had worked as a paid policy consultant for Trump’s campaign.
Web magazine The Federalist obtained and posted what it says is Gorka’s resignation letter. “[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are — for now — ascendant within the White House,” the Federalist quotes Gorka as saying. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.”
Gorka is a wise man who I greatly admire. He was obviously aware of the Deep State early on and traitors in the administration. He did the right thing in leaving and is fighting for the good of Trump daily from the outside.
Steve Bannon
Role: Chief strategist and senior counselor
Hired: Nov. 13, 2016
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: Aug. 18, 2017, 211 days in his tenure
After working as the CEO of the Trump campaign since August 2016, Bannon was appointed to a role in the White House. Trump’s announcement that Bannon would be his chief strategist was met with backlash. Critics opposed Bannon’s purported nationalist views and former position as executive chairman of the website Breitbart News, which published articles that promoted the so-called alt-right movement. Bannon’s firing came as a result of Trump’s increasing frustration with Bannon, according to one senior White House official. A source close to Bannon told ABC News that he resigned with an effective date of Aug. 14.
Anthony Scaramucci
Role: White House communications director
Hired: July 21, 2017
Officially started: July 26, 2017
Left: July 31, 2017, 6 days in his tenure.
Scaramucci didn’t officially start in his position until July 26, so he was on the job for only six days. When his role was announced, however, he took questions from White House reporters during a press briefing.
Almost a week after he was hired, The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza published a detailed account of an expletive-ridden phone conversation he had with Scaramucci. Scaramucci was pushed to resign the Monday after the article’s publication.
Reince Priebus
Role: White House chief of staff
Hired: Nov. 13, 2016
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: July 28, 2017, 190 days in his tenure.
Trump announced on Twitter that he was replacing Priebus as his right-hand man with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. According to senior White House officials, Trump told Priebus he wanted to make a change two weeks before he was fired.
Sean Spicer
Role: White House press secretary
Hired: Dec. 22, 2016
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: July 21, 2017, 183 days in his tenure
Spicer officially took on the role the day Trump was sworn in as president. But Spicer was named incoming press secretary on Dec. 22, 2016, during the presidential transition. A few hours after Anthony Scaramucci was brought on the team as communications director, Spicer resigned. Spicer told ABC News that he felt “relieved” and that “organizationally” the White House communications team needed a “fresh start.” Though he’s no longer the press secretary, Spicer is still assisting the communications office.
Mike Dubke
Role: White House communications director
Hired: March 6, 2017
Left: May 18, 2017, 74 days in his tenure
According to Axios, Dubke left on good terms, but during his time in the White House, he didn’t gel with those who had been with Trump since the campaign.
James Comey
Role: FBI director
Hired: June 21, 2013
Officially started: Sept. 4, 2013
Left: May 9, 2017, 1,344 days in his tenure.
Comey was dismissed by Trump, who the White House originally said was acting on the counsel of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, after they criticized Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Trump later portrayed the decision as his alone and said that he was thinking about the FBI’s Russian election interference probe when he resolved to fire Comey.
Mike Flynn
Role in the Trump administration: National security adviser
Hired: Nov. 18, 2016
Officially started: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: Feb. 13, 2017, 25 days in his tenure.
Flynn, who spent much of 2016 on the campaign trail supporting Trump at rallies and events, was rewarded with the national security adviser position shortly after the election. He lasted just over three weeks before being forced to resign after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of multiple meetings with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak before Trump’s inauguration.
Sally Yates
Role: Acting attorney general
Promoted: Jan. 20, 2017
Left: Jan. 30, 2017, 11 days in her tenure.
After nearly three decades in a career with the Department of Justice, Yates took the reins of the department with the resignation of Barack Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Yates was fired for instructing DOJ lawyers not to defend Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order barring immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
Other notable departures:
- Steven Goldstein: Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
- Josh Raffel: Deputy communications director
- Rick Dearborn: deputy chief of staff
- George Sifakis: director, Office of Public Liaison
- Ezra Cohen-Watnick: senior director for intelligence programs, National Security Council
- Michael Short: senior press assistant
- Walter Shaub: director, Office of Government Ethics
- Vivek Murthy: surgeon general
- Angella Reid: chief usher, White House
- Katie Walsh: deputy chief of staff
- Preet Bharara: U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York
