Donald Trump’s White House is seeing senior officials leave at a pace far beyond recent administrations, with 27 Senate-confirmed appointees departing in just 18 months as the president moves toward a bruising midterm election cycle.
By comparison, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden averaged only 4.3 such exits at the same point in their presidencies, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service. During Trump’s first term, the number stood at 11.
The 27 departures represent 11.4 percent of all Senate-confirmed officials serving in Cabinet departments. Biden’s comparable figure was just 0.4 percent, according to the analysis, which was first reported by The Hill.
The churn accelerated in early July, when four officials left within the first two weeks of the month. Among them were Tina Pierce, the Energy Department’s finance chief, and Major General John Bartrum, the undersecretary of health at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On average, departing officials served eight months in their roles after waiting nearly five months to win Senate confirmation. For roughly 30 percent of those who left, the confirmation process lasted longer than their time in office.
The exits have reached some of the federal government’s most prominent agencies. Leaders of the CDC, FDA, IRS and Department of the Navy have all departed, as have two deputy secretaries, four general counsels and three undersecretaries.
The Treasury Department, led by Scott Bessent, has seen six officials leave, while four have departed Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kristi Noem was removed from Homeland Security in late March following growing criticism over her management of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Trump and First Lady Melania on May 19 as the President hosts the congressional picnic at the White House
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles looks at her phone during a speech of U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 11
Pam Bondi went as frustration built over the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned from Labor in April after becoming the target of misconduct investigations.
Bondi’s replacement is still not confirmed. Trump nominated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the job full-time last month, and the Senate Judiciary Committee votes Thursday on sending him to the floor.
Tulsi Gabbard quit as Director of National Intelligence on May 22, stating that her husband had been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. But her exit, effective June 30, followed months of friction over Iran.
Trump handed the job on an acting basis to Bill Pulte, the Florida real estate executive who ran the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
That appointment drew immediate fire from GOP senators, and Trump was forced to tell reporters in the Oval Office that ‘he is not going to be permanent.’
Gabbard was not the only intelligence official to walk. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in March saying he ‘cannot in good conscience’ back the war.
The empty desks are not being filled as Trump has put forward just 578 nominees to Senate-confirmed posts, the fewest since at least Ronald Reagan and 14 percent below the average of his predecessors going back that far. Since January 1 he has put up just 126.
The gaps get filled by acting officials Trump can install himself, with no Senate hearing, no confirmation vote and often no public announcement of who is in the chair.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears for an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington, March 3
US Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference to announce the guilty plea of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismel “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, in New York City on August 25, 2025
The White House hiring operation is being stretched thin as just nine staff are tasked with recruiting and vetting candidates for thousands of government jobs, five of them in post less than a year. Obama had 14 and Biden 17.
The churn comes as Trump is heading into November midterm elections with the Iran war weighing heavily on the administration.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told the Daily Mail: ‘President Trump has the most talented Cabinet in American history who work every day to implement his common sense, America First agenda.
‘In just over one year, the President and his Cabinet have made our country greater than ever before with the most secure border in history, the largest middle-class tax cut ever, and the lowest murder rate since 1900.
‘The President and his entire administration will continue to tirelessly implement the Trump agenda and achieve tremendous results for the American people.’
The President’s approval sits at 44 percent against 56 percent disapproval, according to a Daily Mail/JL Partners poll of 1,021 registered voters taken between July 17 and 20.
Democrats hold a nine-point lead on the midterm ballot among likely voters, 50 percent to 41.
Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, now say launching military action in Iran was the wrong thing to do. Only 32 percent say it was right.
The economy is even bleaker with 51 percent saying Trump is doing a bad job as oil soared to $100 per barrel on Thursday after Houthi strikes on two Saudi tankers.
One job has seen no turnover at all: chief of staff.
Susie Wiles has held the post for the entirety of the second term, already outlasting the four men who cycled through it between 2017 and 2021.
The Daily Mail revealed in June that Wiles, 69, is quietly planning her exit after the midterms, according to five insiders, frustrated by Trump’s recent Cabinet appointments and drained by cancer treatment.
Wiles denied claims of a rift with the President as ‘outlandish’ and ‘absolutely’ untrue, and posted on X after publication that she is ‘not going anywhere.’
Trump dismissed near-identical criticism of high turnover during his first administration.
‘People will always come and go… There is no chaos, only great energy!’ he said at the time.
