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Donald Trump is not, by any measure, a feminist. He has said so himself. But the president has often pointed to his hiring and promoting of women in an attempt to stave off criticism of both his policies and personal conduct over the years.
During his second term, however, there is one common characteristic among most of those who have departed the Trump administration.
In the space of just a few months, half of his eight female cabinet officials have either resigned or been fired. All have been replaced by men. Several other women in his administration have also departed, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
On Friday, Trump was forced to deny reports that he was considering replacing Susie Wiles, his White House chief of staff, and the first woman to do the job. “She’s gonna be here for a long time,” he claimed.
Numerous top male officials, meanwhile, from Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has on multiple occasions courted global condemnation, to the widely ridiculed FBI director Kash Patel, have survived intense scrutiny and repeated calls for their resignation – and yet remain in post.
Katie Zacharia
The latest female casualty was White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, who was fired on Friday just five days into the role. After a rocky start to her tenure, sparked by a widely panned first White House press briefing on Tuesday, she had also faced questions over her legal credentials after admitting she did not pass the bar exam. The ensuing semantics battle over whether or not she is a lawyer, or an attorney, placed her in a pickle – even with the rightwing cable network Fox News.
Zacharia had taken over from Karoline Leavitt, who said in August that she had chosen to resign from the role after 20 months so she could spend more time with her young family.
Kristi Noem
In terms of firings, the first domino to fall was former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who was the face of Trump’s mass deportation campaign until she was unceremoniously sacked on 5 March. Her tenure was plagued by controversy, in large part amid national uproar over federal immigration enforcement operations that killed two US citizens in Minneapolis (one of whom Noem called a “domestic terrorist”, with no evidence), and coincided with a sharp decline in national support for Trump’s immigration agenda.
Her suggestion at a congressional hearing in March that Trump had known about her decision to approve a contract for a $220m ad campaign to encourage immigrants to “self-deport” – which prominently featured Noem on horseback – reportedly left Trump “pissed” and appeared to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. There had also been scrutiny of general leadership failures under Noem, as well as questions the influence of her adviser, Corey Lewandowski, who also left his role when she was ousted.
Noem was repurposed as special envoy to the so-called “Shield of the Americas” coalition and, after that arrangement expired last month, is now serving in a vaguely defined advisory role. She was succeeded as DHS secretary by Markwayne Mullin.
Pam Bondi
Next fell former attorney general and Trump loyalist Pam Bondi, who was pushed out in April after a turbulent 14 months that saw the president increasingly frustrated over her mishandling of the Department of Justice’s long-awaited release of the Epstein files. The Epstein issue became a huge political liability for Trump and infuriated his Maga base, and he also felt that Bondi had failed to sufficiently prosecute his political enemies.
Bondi revealed a month after she was ousted that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her deputy, Todd Blanche, assumed the role in August.
It’s worth noting that commerce secretary Howard Lutnick faced public scrutiny after details emerged surrounding his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein and visits to his private island emerged. By contrast, the White House supported him after Democrats called for his resignation.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Also in April, former labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stepped down after a Department of Labor inspector general investigation led to a series of allegations of misconduct, including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job. She was replaced by Keith Sonderling.
Kash Patel has also been alleged to have been intoxicated or absent on the job. He has denied these allegations, and remains FBI director.
Tulsi Gabbard
A month later, in May, Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her position as Trump’s national intelligence director.
While she officially cited her husband’s rare cancer diagnosis, Gabbard was reportedly forced out after a tumultuous stint in which she was largely sidelined as Trump launched attacks on Venezuela and Iran. She had previously testified to Congress that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
Gabbard was replaced on an acting basis by Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist with no previous experience in the intelligence sphere, and eventually by Jay Clayton.
Kimberly Guilfoyle
Earlier this week, the Trump administration asked longtime Trump ally Kimberly Guilfoyle to step down from her position as US ambassador to Greece after weeks of reports that she sought payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to administration officials.
The only senior male official to have been somewhat punished by Trump since his return to office is Mike Waltz. The then-national security adviser was fired in May last year after inadvertently adding a journalist to a Signal group chat in which Hegseth disclosed secret war plans.
Waltz had been on thin ice with Trump for a while, and the president was reportedly annoyed by Waltz’s hawkish stance on Iran. Signalgate merely sealed his fate.
But he didn’t disappear to some obscure advisory role; Waltz was nominated to the position of US ambassador to the United Nations. Hegseth, meanwhile, was allowed to ride out the controversy and – several controversies later, including allegations of war crimes – remains in post.
Democrats have highlighted the double standard that Trump only seems to fire women in his administration – even those who are ultra-loyal to him, and decidedly less incompetent than some of their male colleagues.
“If you’re a man in the Trump administration, it seems that they reward misconduct,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman, observed in April.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist,” Trump said in a 2018 interview. “I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far. I’m for women. I’m for men. I’m for everyone.”
But not everyone gets to stick around.
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