Senate Republicans are urging President Donald Trump to do any planned Cabinet purges as soon as possible given the party’s uncertain outlook in the November midterm elections.
Since early March, the president has axed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and now Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer over a series of both personal and professional scandals.
Those firings have some Senate Republicans wondering if high-level appointments such as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel could be next, Politico reported.
In that case, the president should start culling immediately, several GOP senators told the outlet.
“The number of working days are very limited,” between now and November, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said. “You just do the math. It’s a very compressed schedule.”
He warned that if Trump waits until to June or July to oust more officials, the Senate could run out of time to confirm them. Another unidentified GOP senator said that while any Cabinet changes are obviously Trump’s call, it would “make sense to do it now.”
“As we get closer to the election… you never know what’s going to happen in the Senate,” the senator said.
Although Democrats have always been seen as competitive when it comes to flipping the House in November, control of the Senate seemed far out of reach at the beginning of the 2026 election cycle.
Retaking the upper chamber would require flipping at least four Republican-held seats, including two in states that Trump won by double digits in 2024.
But as Americans have become increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration amid a worsening cost of living crisis and an unpopular war with Iran, Democrats are gaining ground in states like Ohio, Alaska, and North Carolina that went for Trump in 2024.
In the meantime, Senate Republicans have a packed legislative calendar that includes the GOP’s party-line push for immigration enforcement funding; a package of lower-level nominations that party leaders want to confirm; and long periods out of session that have been set aside for campaigning.
“We’ve got a full plate, so confirming new people is going to take a while,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota told Politico.
Another unnamed senator told the outlet that Trump is “in a bad mood, so he’s letting a lot of [his Cabinet] go. He’s preparing to really let a lot of them go.”
Trump has reportedly been weighing firing Gabbard, 44, after she refused to fire Joe Kent, the former National Counterterrorism Center director who resigned over the Iran war, and failed to condemn his criticism of the war.
Lutnick, 64, has been angering White House insiders for months, and has come under fire even among some MAGA supporters for lying about the extent of his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
And Patel, 46, reportedly ticked off Trump by chugging beer on camera with the U.S. Men’s Hockey team following their gold medal victor at the Winter Olympics in Milan. A bombshell report published last week in The Atlantic quotes officials who described the FBI director as erratic, paranoid, and prone to heavy drinking.
The White House defended Trump’s Cabinet in a statement to Politico.
“The President has assembled a world-class cabinet who are tirelessly implementing the President’s agenda and achieving tremendous results for the American people,” spokesperson Davis Ingle said. “They will continue fulfilling the many promises President Trump was elected to enact. The White House is appreciative of their service to this country.”
The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment.
