Washington is abuzz with talk of a firing purge, as Donald Trump tries to reboot his embattled presidency by restaffing his administration. Because of the Iran war, his approval ratings have cratered. The Maga movement is splintering. His “Jesus of Mar-a-Lago” meme infuriated evangelical Christians. His battle with Pope Leo XIV has angered Catholics, who make up roughly a fifth of the US electorate.
This conspiracy-theorist-in-chief has himself become the target of conspiracy theories. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was once such a devoted cheerleader, has added her penetrative voice to those within Maga raising questions about whether the 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged. Talk of a fake assassination attempt is ludicrous. But it speaks of the turmoil in Trumplandia that the instantly iconographic picture of the then-candidate punching the air, with blood dripping down his face and the Stars and Stripes fluttering in the background, is now being brought into question.
Up until recently, a striking feature of Trump 2.0 was that the administration was staffed by Trump loyalists to whom the President remained loyal. Trump 1.0, by contrast, felt more like The Apprentice, where the Oval Office had the feel of Trump’s mahogany boardroom and the former reality TV star revived the catchphrase which in the early part of the 21st century fuelled his fame: “You’re fired.” A conga-line of senior administration officials lost their jobs.
Victims of that two-word catchphrase included his first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who had once described the President as a “moron.” A string of White House chiefs of staff, the second most important figure in any well-functioning West Wing, were shown the door. Trump fired his FBI director James Comey and his first Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the country’s two most senior law enforcement officials. Then, of course, there was Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci, the star now of the hit podcast The Rest is Politics: US, who survived as White House communications director for just 11 days. Thereafter, a “Scaramucci” became a unit of time. The longevity of White House appointees was judged not only in the number of days but the number of “Scaramuccis”.
Now, the President is reverting to type. Since the beginning of the year, he has gone on a sacking spree. Kristi Noem, who as Secretary of Homeland Security found herself at the centre of a string of controversies, became the first Cabinet official since inauguration day to go. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement – or ICE, as it is better known – came under her purview, so her position came under scrutiny following the killings at the hands of ICE agents of two protesters in Minneapolis, Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Then there was her self-promotional role in a promotional video for the Department of Homeland Security, part of an ad campaign which reportedly cost $220m. Noem appeared on horseback in her native South Dakota, where she had served as Republican governor, in a film culminating with her posing on her steed in front of Mount Rushmore, where the sculptures of four former presidents are carved into the granite face. In March, she was fired.
Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick as Attorney General, was next to go. The 60-year-old Floridian, who the president described as a “loyal friend” even as he announced she was “transitioning” to the private sector, had not prosecuted his political enemies with sufficient zeal, partly because there were no obvious grounds to mount prosecutions. The President was also thought to be unhappy with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, even though the millions of documents released by the Justice Department were heavily redacted.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, another high-profile female appointee, is the latest to go. The White House announced her departure on Monday. Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon, had been under internal investigation from the inspector general at the Labor Department following misconduct allegations about using government resources for personal trips and conducting an affair with a member of her security detail.
Up until the sacking of Noem, Trump had adopted a fortress mentality. Headline-grabbing staff changes, he reckoned, demonstrated weakness and handed Democratic opponents easy political wins. “No scalps” was apparently the unofficial motto. His White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, has also been a restraining influence on her boss, and brought more stability to the West Wing operation. Recently, though, she has been receiving treatment for breast cancer, and, it is thought, not been such a round-the-clock presence.
Now in Washington, journalists are drawing up potential hit-lists. It has become something of a parlour game. Earlier this month, The Atlantic reported the FBI director Kash Patel could soon be shown the exit (this week Patel sued the magazine in a multi-million dollar defamation suit for publishing an article claiming he had a drinking problem). Chavez-DeRemer was high on their list. So, too, is Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, a former military officer who has clashed with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Politico conjectured that Trump is considering replacing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, the tough-talking former chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, who faced calls for his resignation because of his association with Epstein. The shake-up, a senior administration told Politico, would target those who “underperformed or who have generated too much negative attention.”
With inflation spiking because of the Iran war, Trump’s approval ratings for his stewardship of the US economy have hit Biden-like lows. So there is a political rationale for picking a new economic team. But even Trump’s supporters know it was the president who chose to mount Operation Epic Fury, seemingly unconcerned the Iranians could place their boot on the throat of global oil trade by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Firings look like blame-shifting, especially for a president quick to take sole credit when things go right but who never takes responsibility when things go awry. In “golden age” America, rarely does he admit any loss of lustre. Last week, during a speech in Las Vegas, he even spoke of “fake inflation”.
Because of the demagogic style of his presidency, Trump will not be able to fire his way out of trouble. It is the drawback of boasting “I alone can fix it.” It is the downside of casting himself as the star of a one-man show.
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