White House officials are scrambling to do damage control amid growing reports that the president will soon purge some of his most problematic political appointees.
It’s widely believed that Trump, 79, is waiting until the one-year mark of his second term before reshuffling his already-embattled Cabinet—a strategy intended to avoid the revolving-door circus of his first term. Publicly, however, the White House is raging against any such suggestions.
“President Trump has assembled the most talented and capable Cabinet in American history,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast on Monday. “These so-called reports are nothing but Fake News.”
This month, three of Trump’s most problematic political appointees have emerged as prime candidates for the chopping block: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Each has been at the center of their own mini-crisis, and each time the White House has slapped down rumors of their potential firings as mere media fabrication.
Privately, former and current officials have revealed to outlets including the Daily Beast, CNN, and MS NOW that Noem may be living on borrowed time due to an alleged extramarital affair with her chief adviser Corey Lewandowski, which has been dubbed D.C.’s “worst-kept secret.”
On Monday, the White House’s official X account lashed out at an MS NOW report detailing Stephen Miller’s alleged push to ax Noem, 54.
“More Fake News BS from MSDNC,” a White House official wrote. “[Noem] and [Miller] get along great—as evidenced by the swift closing of the border and the fewest number of illegal border crossings in modern history.”
Jackson struck the same tone, telling the Daily Beast: “MS NOW and the Daily Beast continue to beclown themselves by inventing narratives that simply are not true.”
In November, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also hit back at claims that Patel, 45, was on the chopping block following reports that his behavior had become an embarrassment to Trump.
The MAGA podcaster has been on “thin ice” after a series of high-profile missteps—including commandeering a government jet to fly to Pennsylvania for a “date night” with his girlfriend.
Leavitt, 28, slammed such reports as “fake news” and “completely made-up” by posting a picture of Trump and Patel giving a thumbs-up in the Oval Office. “In fact, when this Fake News was published, I was in the Oval Office, where President Trump was meeting with his law enforcement team, including FBI Director Kash Patel,” Leavitt wrote on X. “I read the headline to the President, and he laughed. He said: ‘What? That’s totally false. Come on Kash, let’s take a picture to show them you’re doing a great job!’”
Even as Patel has attempted to lay low, reports surfaced last week that he instructed agents to give his girlfriend’s intoxicated friend a ride home.
The White House has issued similar support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 45, who last week was accused of war crimes in the administration’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and faced further scrutiny after a damning report on the Signalgate scandal reportedly blamed him for compromising sensitive war plans.
Trump had record-setting turnover in the White House and within his Cabinet during his first term.
Whoever is first out the door, it’s likely Trump won’t be the one delivering the news himself. While the president rode his once-signature catchphrase “You’re fired” all the way to the Oval Office, he actually detests booting his officials.
During Trump’s first term, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson learned of his own ousting while in the bathroom, the Daily Beast reported at the time. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and White House staff secretary Rob Porter were all shown the door by then–Chief of Staff John Kelly, who later resigned.
“I have never heard him say the words ‘You’re fired’ to anyone,” Billy Procida, a vice president for the Trump Organization in the early ’90s, told Politico in 2016. “He really doesn’t fire people. He makes it known he doesn’t want you there, and you move on.”
