Donald Trump is not, by any means, a feminist. He himself has said it. But the president has often pointed to his hiring and promotion of women in an attempt to deflect criticism of both his policies and his personal conduct over the years. However, during his second term, there is a common characteristic among the majority of those who have left the Trump administration. In the space of just a few months, half of its eight senior officials have resigned or been fired. They have all been replaced by men. Several other women in his administration have also left, either 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 hold the position. “It’s going to be here for a long time,” he said. Meanwhile, numerous top male officials, from Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has on multiple occasions drawn global condemnation, to the widely derided FBI Director Kash Patel, have survived intense scrutiny and repeated calls for their resignation, and yet remain in office. Katie Zacharia The latest female victim was White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, who was fired on Friday just five days after taking office. After a rocky start to his tenure, sparked by a widely criticized first White House news conference on Tuesday, he also faced questions about his legal credentials after admitting he failed the bar exam. The ensuing semantic battle over whether she was a lawyer or a lawyer put her in hot water, including with the right-wing cable network Fox News. Zacharia had replaced Karoline Leavitt, who said in August that she had decided to resign from the position after 20 months so she could spend more time with her young family. mass deportation campaign until she was unceremoniously dismissed on March 5. Her tenure was plagued with controversy, much of it amid national uproar over federal immigration enforcement operations that killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis (one of whom Noem called a “domestic terrorist,” without evidence), and coincided with a sharp drop in national support for Trump’s immigration agenda. Her suggestion at a congressional hearing in March that Trump had learned of her decision to approve a contract for a $220 million ad campaign to encourage immigrants to “self-deport” – which prominently featured Noem on horseback – reportedly left Trump “angry” and appeared to be the last straw. There was also scrutiny of the overall failures of leadership under Noem, as well as questioning the influence of her adviser, Corey Lewandowski, who also left office when she was ousted. Noem was repurposed as a special envoy to the coalition called “Shield of the Americas” and, after that agreement expired last month, now plays a vaguely defined advisory role. Markwayne Mullin succeeded her as DHS secretary. Pam Bondi Next up was former attorney general and Trump loyalist Pam Bondi, who was ousted in April after a turbulent 14 months in which the president became increasingly frustrated with her mishandling of the Justice Department’s long-awaited release of Epstein files. The Epstein issue became a huge political liability for Trump and angered his Maga base, who also felt that Bondi had not sufficiently prosecuted his political enemies. Bondi revealed a month after being dismissed that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. His deputy, Todd Blanche, took over in August. It’s worth noting that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick faced public scrutiny after details emerged about his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein and visits to his private island surfaced. On the contrary, the White House supported him after Democrats called for his resignation. Lori Chavez-DeRemer Also in April, former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned after an investigation by the Labor Department’s inspector general 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. It is also alleged that Kash Patel was drunk or absent from work. He has denied these allegations and remains director of the FBI. Tulsi Gabbard A month later, in May, Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her position as Trump’s director of national intelligence. While she officially cited her husband’s rare cancer diagnosis, Gabbard was allegedly forced to resign after a tumultuous period in which she was largely sidelined as Trump launched attacks on Venezuela and Iran. He had previously testified before Congress that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. Gabbard was replaced on an interim basis by Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist with no prior experience in the intelligence sphere, and finally by Jay Clayton. Kimberly Guilfoyle Earlier this week, the Trump administration asked longtime Trump ally Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign from her position as U.S. ambassador to Greece after weeks of reports that she sought a payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to administration officials. Somewhat punished by Trump since his return to office is Mike Waltz. The then-national security adviser was fired in May of last year after inadvertently adding a journalist to a Signal group chat in which Hegseth revealed secret war plans. Waltz had been on a tightrope with Trump for some time, and the president was reportedly upset by Waltz’s tough stance on Iran. Signalgate simply sealed its fate. But he didn’t disappear into some obscure advisory role; Waltz was nominated for the position of United States ambassador to the United Nations. Meanwhile, Hegseth was allowed to ride out the controversy and (several controversies later, including war crimes accusations) remains in office. Democrats have highlighted the double standard that Trump only appears 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, they seem to reward bad behavior,” 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 maybe that would be going too far. I’m for women. I’m for men. I’m for everyone.” But not everyone manages to stay.
