Trump weighs more Cabinet changes, but wants to avoid ‘massive shake-up’
After ousting two of his highest-profile Cabinet members from their posts, President Donald Trump is considering making more changes to his administration’s top leadership, according to advisers — a decision that would accelerate the once-slow pace of his second-term staff departures.
But Trump, who sought to avoid high-profile departures during the first year back in the White House — often publicly standing by Cabinet members even as they faced scrutiny — is also reluctant to engage in a large-scale shake-up of his Cabinet, and in some cases has pushed to counter reporting that he has soured on certain officials.
On the heels of news of the firing Thursday of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, Trump wanted to make a “very strong” statement reaffirming his support for another official rumored to be on the chopping block, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. As a result, his rapid-response account on X posted a statement from Trump’s communications director saying that the president “has total confidence” in Gabbard, “and any insinuation otherwise is totally fake news.”
Gabbard, who has a long history of criticizing U.S. involvement in Middle East conflicts — specifically the notion of a war with Iran — has continued to brief the president on intelligence, even as Trump earlier this week told reporters that Gabbard was “a little bit different in her thought process than me” on Iran.
Gabbard is “safe” in her role for the time being, the White House official said.
Two others in his Cabinet may be less secure. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have both been under Trump’s scrutiny for a possible exit, according to the same official.
Chavez-Deremer, who is facing misconduct allegations that include an alleged affair with a staffer and drinking in her office, has so far remained in her role despite top officials in her agency resigning amid the scandal. And Lutnick’s style of freelancing policy ideas and deals without prior approval has long prompted eye rolls from aides and others in the White House, according to people close to Trump, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.
Trump has discussed letting both of them go, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, but he hasn’t made a final decision, and their departures aren’t necessarily imminent.
“Reports of him wanting to do a massive shake-up are overblown,” the official said. The firings of Bondi and Noem, the official contended, were each isolated cases after Trump spent time considering moving them out of their roles over issues with their respective job performances. He had been slow to give the edict for both, doing so after conversations over months.
The president isn’t looking far to fill Bondi’s role once she leaves the Justice Department. Trump has already tapped Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as acting attorney general upon Bondi’s departure — and it’s “very likely” Blanche will be the one to run the department for the long term, the White House official told The Washington Post on Friday.
Trump has floated others for the role, including Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, whom he met with at the White House on Tuesday. Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, has been pushed by influential MAGA commentators this week as the person Trump should tap for the role.
A White House official told The Post that while Trump “really respects” Dhillon, she is not a top contender for attorney general.
As for Blanche, the official said, “right now, the president is happy.”
In a statement to The Post, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump has “the most talented cabinet and team in American history,” and referred to Gabbard, Lutnick and Chavez-Deremer as “patriots” who are “tirelessly implementing the president’s agenda and achieving tremendous results for the American people.”
“They continue to have the president’s full confidence,” Ingle said.
Trump had told Bondi a day before firing her that her “time is ending” in the role, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. The two spoke Wednesday as Bondi traveled with the president to hear Supreme Court arguments in his administration’s birthright citizenship case.
Bondi asked the president to keep her in the role for longer, and Trump said he would consider the request, the person said. Within hours, however, news of her imminent departure had spread. Trump, who remains fond of Bondi personally, had been weighing her ouster for months and was dissatisfied with Bondi’s failure to prosecute his political foes and her handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which dominated news for much of last year, said two people with knowledge of the president’s thinking.
A month earlier, Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem after a similar monthslong probationary period in which he was unhappy with her performance and the negative headlines drawn by her agency, his advisers told The Post.