Senior officials have been deserting Donald Trump’s second presidential administration at a record rate far exceeding the turnover during his first term in office, new figures show.
The exodus has seen 27 Senate-confirmed officials leave their positions in the last 18 months, up from 11 over the same period in his first term—a 145 percent increase, according to an analysis from the Partnership for Public Service, reported by The Hill.
The figures show the number of officials leaving their jobs during Trump 2.0 is six times higher than the average number during the first 18 months under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Three Cabinet secretaries have lost their jobs in Trump’s second term so far: Kristi Noem at Homeland Security, Pam Bondi as attorney general, and Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer.
Trump fired Noem in March and installed Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to lead DHS after a string of embarrassing incidents and scandals involving the woman dubbed “Ice Barbie” by the Daily Beast for her love of uniformed cosplay.
Bondi was fired in early April over her handling of the Epstein files and her failure to prosecute her boss’s enemies.
Chavez-DeRemer handed in her resignation in April, after a laundry list of complaints and allegations of potential misconduct.
The report points out that four Senate-confirmed officials have left the Trump administration during the first two weeks of this month alone.
They include Tina Pierce, the former CFO at the Energy Department and Maj. Gen. John Bartrum, who was undersecretary of health at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The analysis also found that four confirmed officials have left the Health and Human Services Department under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while six have left the Treasury Department under Scott Bessent.
The report found the average tenure of those who left their roles in the current administration was eight months, which was only slightly longer than the five-month average confirmation delay to reach their position.
Many of the officials who leave are not being replaced: the report said Trump has only nominated 126 people to fill roles in his administration since Jan. 1 this year.
“As officials leave, they aren’t being replaced. Trump has made fewer nominations to Senate-confirmed posts than any president since Ronald Reagan, 91 fewer than the average between Reagan and Biden,” the report said.
The author of the nonprofit’s report, Chris Piper, said the turnover on such a scale does not just thin the government ranks, but concentrates power in the president.
“Each seat left to an acting official is one the president can fill on his own terms without the Senate’s advice and consent: no vetting, no confirmation hearing, no vote,” Piper said.
“Nor can the public always identify who holds the office. Interim officials are frequently unannounced and not publicly listed, making it difficult to know who is running an agency or office on any given day.”
Piper added that the lack of nominations and rise in departures feed the same basic problem: “A widening set of vacant posts increasingly filled by acting officials the president can install without Senate confirmation.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
