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Who The Fuck Has Left The Trump Administration

General Discussion
#394

Looks like the WH Legal staff has been very much depleted. We knew of deputy counsel Annie Donaldson, leaving, but this says that mcGahn’s replacement Pat Cipollone has been delayed to start due to ‘extended background check’.

But there are about 25 lawyers working there, as opposed to the 40 or so they have been used to…hmmmm.

The office has been without a permanent leader since ex-White House senior attorney Don McGahn left the administration in mid-October. His replacement, Pat Cipollone, is caught up in an extended background check that’s prevented him from starting. And in the coming weeks, deputy counsel Annie Donaldson, who served as McGahn’s most trusted aide and as the office’s chief of staff, is expected to leave the administration, according to two Republicans close to the White House.

…

Amid the leadership tumult, the counsel’s office has shrunk to about 25 lawyers, according to a second Republican close to the administration. That’s lower than its recent high point of roughly 35 attorneys and well short of the 40 people that some expect it will need to deal with a reinvigorated Democratic party eager to investigate the president’s tax returns and business dealings in foreign countries, reopen probes into Russian election meddling and explore the behavior of a bevy of Cabinet officials.

“They only have roughly 20 dedicated White House lawyers and a bunch of detailees who could leave at any time,” one former White House official told POLITICO. “I don’t think anyone who is paying attention thinks they are prepared for a Democratic takeover.”

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#395

President Donald Trump is losing his personal aide, Jordan Karem, who plans to resign after less than a year on the job, according to people familiar with the matter.

Karem serves as Trump’s so-called “bodyman,” an aide who accompanies the president on travel and looks after his personal needs. He’s also a Trump confidant, familiar with his moods and thinking. The president relies on him for advice and to relay messages between Trump’s advisers inside and outside the White House, the people said.

Karem is often the first aide Trump sees in the morning and the last to see him at night. He joined the Trump campaign in July 2015 as an advance staffer before becoming press director for then-vice presidential candidate Mike Pence. He became Trump’s personal aide in March.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-11-26/trump-s-personal-aide-karem-is-said-to-intend-to-resign-post

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#396

Pending…

#397

Another High-Ranking FBI Official to Depart

Bill Priestap, who currently serves as assistant director of the bureau’s counterintelligence division, will leave his post by year-end…

Why?

A top FBI official who had a role in overseeing investigations into both Hillary Clinton and the Trump campaign will retire at the end of the year.

Bill Priestap, who currently serves as assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, will leave the bureau after 20 years, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

His departure is unrelated to the 2016 investigations and the questions that have been raised about them, the Journal reported.

The FBI said in a statement to the newspaper that Priestap “became eligible to retire and has chosen to do so after 20 years of service."

Priestap was involved in the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Russians colluded with the Trump campaign, and he was also part of the bureau’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.

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#398

100% Trump is running the Presidency like a reality show.

President Donald Trump is still looking for a new United Nations ambassador. He has no deputy national security adviser. His attorney general and Environmental Protection Agency administrator are serving in acting capacities, and his constant badmouthing of his chief of staff and secretary of Homeland Security has undermined their authority.

The president once openly signaled a plan to revamp his Cabinet and staff after the midterm elections, calling it a “very customary” act — and his aides acknowledged that big changes might be coming. But while he demanded the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions the day after last month’s midterm elections, the once-breathless anticipation of his next personnel move has stretched into a long and awkward waiting game.

—

“I think Trump likes to make nominations into kind of a reality-TV show moment; he likes to keep people sitting on the edge of their seats. ‘Are you in or are you out?’ ‘Are you hired or fired?’” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. “But it creates a sense of chaos in the administration.”

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#399

https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/07/politics/john-kelly-chief-of-staff-donald-trump/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fcurrentstatus.io%2F

John Kelly is expected to resign as White House chief of staff in the coming days, two sources familiar with the situation unfolding in the West Wing tell CNN.
Seventeen months in, Kelly and President Donald Trump have reached a stalemate in their relationship and it is no longer seen as tenable by either party. Though Trump asked Kelly over the summer to stay on as chief of staff for two more years, the two have stopped speaking in recent days.

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#400

Strange story :thinking:

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the head of the Justice Department was to report the vacancy in the office of attorney general and any appointment of an acting attorney general to the head of the Government Accountability Office "immediately."

It’s been a month since Trump forced then-Attorney General Sessions to resign and then tweeted that Matthew Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff, would be the acting attorney general.

There has been no notification.

The comptroller general of the United States, the head of the accountability office, hasn’t received any reporting of either the vacancy or the acting appointment, a GAO spokesperson for the office told BuzzFeed News on Friday morning.

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#401

Trump%20Kelly%20out

Done…

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#402

John F. Kelly, the retired Marine general tapped as chief of staff by President Trump last year to bring order to his chaotic White House, will leave the job by the end of the year, Mr. Trump said on Saturday, the latest departure from the president’s inner circle after a bruising midterm election for his party.

Mr. Trump, speaking with reporters on the White House lawn before departing for the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, said that he would announce a replacement for Mr. Kelly in the next day or two.

The leading candidate to replace Mr. Kelly is Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence’s 36-year-old chief of staff and a Republican political operative, who possesses the kind of savvy about campaigns that Mr. Trump has craved. Mr. Kelly, a career military officer before becoming Mr. Trump’s first homeland security secretary, lacked such experience.

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#403

Mr. Mulvaney was one of the few prospects for the chief of staff job who was seen as openly campaigning for it over most of the year. At one point, he told the president he was right for it because he was the only person in the administration leading a department that was not mired in scandal, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

—

On Friday, a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there would be no end date to Mr. Mulvaney’s role despite his “acting” title.

“There’s no time limit. He’s the acting chief of staff, which means he’s the chief of staff,” the official said. “He got picked because the president liked him — they get along.”

:roll_eyes: Is the position really filled if Trump just stuck Mulvaney with the job?

When he first took over, [The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] he promised to split his time between the budget office and the consumer bureau, which is within walking distance of the White House. But as the months dragged on, he spent less time at the bureau and toward the end of his tenure there employees reported seeing him no more than once or twice a week.

Good luck! :joy::joy::joy:

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#404

I also want to add this little gem.

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#405

Ryan Zinke is OUT…:boom:

Too many mounting investigations and Democrats coming in to really get after him.

Dept of the Interior has left a scorched earth with his hand. :earth_asia:

Good riddance. :disappointed_relieved:

Ryan Zinke, President Donald Trump’s loyal but embattled secretary of the Interior Department, is leaving the administration after less than two years on the job.

President Trump made the announcement on Twitter early Saturday, saying Zinke had “accomplished much during his tenure” and thanking him for his service.

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#406

Thanks for posting this – otherwise, I might have missed it! CNN has it posted in small print way down “below the fold.” Instead, they are featuring a story about how Trump could win the next election – they splash a giant headline about an election that’s two years away while ignoring this major scandal? Say what?

This is huge and should be the front page headline at every news outlet today. It just shows how complacent the public has become when it comes to Trump’s daily parade of scandals and screw ups. If an Obama cabinet member suddenly resigned while under investigation, it would be a banner headline.

Can’t wait until this guy is brought to justice for bilking the American people like so many others in this Administration.

Only the best, right?

P.S. Hey, Interior Department, we want Bears Ears National Monument restored to its original size – the size it was before Zinke’s staffer, Downey Magallanes, plundered 85% of the park so BP could drill for oil on it. She then immediately went to work for BP. She must be investigated, too. :moneybag:

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#407

Wow, Zinke is such a piece of shit. Read this little tibbit from his WaPo cruption round up story. :poop:

The secretary’s final public appearance was Thursday night at his Christmas party, which he told White House staffers he wanted to have before his dismissal. He invited lobbyists and conservative activists to his executive suite, where he posed for photos in front of a large stuffed polar bear wearing a Santa cap, according to an attendee.

Mounted animals on the wall were fitted with ornaments.

Read more here :point_down:

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#408

I agree with you…I usually scan the Drudge Report for headlines…(even with knowing their bias) and saw this in the middle of their notable news…and switched over to CNN/MSNBC and you are right @Keaton_James , saw NOTHING!

His tenure was laden with corrupt and pro-oil giveaways, and he was selling the farm basically. And remember that lil’ trick they were trying to do internally to make the Zinke/Dept of Interior investigation go away…change out some internal checks and balances with someone who would not bring charges…(See Mary Kendall, Inspector General for Dept of Interior attempted switcheroo New Yorker Article below)

Yes…this was a big deal, among the big deals this week!

Here’s your Investigation sheet on Ryan Zinke…

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#409

Interesting run down on what is going on with those who have left the Administration…snarky stuff.

Hope Hicks moved to LA and is working for Fox Network in PR.

Scott Pruitt

Still in Washington? More likely back in his Tulsa mini-mansion.
Current job: According to the Times, was in talks to work for Kentucky mining magnate Joseph W. Craft III.

Sean Spicer

Still in Washington? Yes.
Current job: Senior adviser and spokesman for pro-Trump super-PAC America First Action.

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#410

Mattis is retiring in February.

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#411

Geez…

Syrian decision…was not anyone in the miltary’s idea…so now was the exit time.

We are in a real bind. And total chaos.

Calling Mueller please.

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#412

Zachary Fuentes, John Kelly’s Deputy Chief of Staff, who is expected to leave the White House in the coming months, devises a secret plan to “hide out” until he can collect early retirement from the Coast Guard. :woman_shrugging:t2:

After weeks of discussions about his future, Zachary D. Fuentes, the 36-year-old deputy White House chief of staff, had a plan.

Mr. Fuentes told colleagues that after his mentor, John F. Kelly, left his job as chief of staff at the end of the year, he would “hide out” at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, for six months, remaining on the payroll in a nebulous role. Then, in July, when he had completed 15 years of service in the Coast Guard, Mr. Fuentes — an active-duty officer — would take advantage of an early retirement program.

The program, referred to as temporary early retirement authority, had lapsed for Coast Guard officials at the end of the 2018 fiscal year, and, according to people briefed on the discussions, Department of Homeland Security officials began pressing Congress in November to reinstate it. Administration officials said they had been told that Mr. Fuentes discussed the program with officials at the Department of Homeland Security, and after reporters raised questions with lawmakers of both parties, a provision to reinstate it was abruptly pulled from a House bill on Wednesday.

The White House declined to answer questions about whether Mr. Fuentes had pressed to have the program restarted, saying only that he planned to remain on for a time as a senior adviser to aid in the transition to a new chief of staff. But in interviews, nearly a dozen White House and administration aides, none of whom would speak on the record, raised concerns about how they believed Mr. Fuentes planned to use government resources in the coming months.

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#413

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-envoy-to-coalition-fighting-isis-resigns-in-protest-of-trumps-syria-decision/2018/12/22/a5f42bc0-0606-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.3589e0c8ddf4

Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, has resigned in protest of President Trump’s decision to abruptly withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

His resignation, confirmed by a State Department official familiar with the matter, comes on the heels of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s announced departure this week because of differences with the White House over foreign policy, immediately following Trump’s decision. Mattis said he would stay on until February to ensure an smooth transition.

McGurk’s departure is effective December 31, an earlier exit than his intended departure in mid-February, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. McGurk submitted his resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, the official said.

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