Editor's note:
Because Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House has ended, this page will no longer be updated. It will remain in its current state as a resource for historical data.
The rate of turnover among senior-level advisers to President Trump has generated a great deal of attention. Below, we offer two sets of resources to help measure and contextualize this turnover. The first set of resources tracks turnover among senior-ranking advisers in the executive office of the president (which does not include Cabinet secretaries); the second set of resources tracks turnover in the Cabinet.
A Team Turnover
Turnover on President Trump's “A Team”
President Trump’s “A Team” turnover is 92% as of January 20, 2021The following chart and table reflect turnover among the most influential positions within the executive office of the president. This data is compiled and tracked by Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who refers to this group of advisers as the president’s “A Team.” The list of positions that make up the “A Team” is based on National Journal “Decision Makers” editions, and Dunn Tenpas’s methodology is described in detail in a report she published in January 2018. The chart and table below will be updated as additional members of the “A Team” depart their positions. It is important to note the following:
- Because the “A Team” is made up of members of the executive office of the president, it does not include Cabinet secretaries.
- Each position on the “A Team” is only counted once. If multiple people hold and depart from the same position (e.g., communications director), only the initial departure is tracked/affects the turnover rate. For more information on these instances, see the “serial turnover” section below.
Summary and analysis of “A Team” turnover in the Trump administration
Set out below is a list of the senior level departures from the executive office of the president since the beginning of the Trump administration (each of the 65 “A Team” positions is only counted once toward the turnover rate, thus, this chart only includes the first person to hold/depart a given position). “ST” indicates a position that went through multiple instances of turnover; see below for more details.
| Year | Position | Name | Prior job | Nature of departure* | Date of departure announcement | Where to? | Successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Senior Director for Africa, NSC (ST) | Robin Townley | Marines | Resigned Under Pressure (RUP) | 2/10/2017 | Sonoran Policy Group | Cyril Sartor |
| 1 | Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary, NSC (ST) | Keith Kellogg | Cubic Defense | Promoted | 2/13/2017 | Acting National Security Adviser | Frederick Fleitz |
| 1 | National Security Advisor (ST) | Michael Flynn | Trump Campaign | RUP | 2/13/2017 | Unknown | H.R. McMaster |
| 1 | Assistant to the President (AP) and Senior Counselor for Economic Initiatives | Dina Powell | Goldman Sachs | Promoted | 3/15/2017 | Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy | Unknown |
| 1 | Deputy Chief of Staff (ST) | Katie Walsh | RNC | RUP | 3/30/2017 | America First Policies, then RNC (7/21/17) | Kirstjen Nielsen |
| 1 | Deputy National Security Adviser (ST) | KT McFarland | TV analyst | RUP | 5/19/2017 | Ambassadorial nomination withdrew/unknown | Dina Powell/Ricky Waddell |
| 1 | AP and Communications Director (ST) | Michael Dubke | Black Rock Group | RUP | 5/30/2017 | Georgetown University lecturer, Black Rock Group | Anthony Scaramucci** |
| 1 | Press Secretary (ST) | Sean Spicer | RNC | RUP | 7/21/2017 | Worldwide Speakers Group | Sarah Huckabee Sanders |
| 1 | Principal Deputy Press Secretary (ST) | Sarah Huckabee Sanders | Trump Campaign | Promoted | 7/21/2017 | Press Secretary | Raj Shah |
| 1 | AP and Chief of Staff to the VP (ST) | Josh Pitcock | Capitol Hill | Resigned | 7/28/2017 | Oracle | Nick Ayers |
| 1 | Chief of Staff (ST) | Reince Priebus | RNC | RUP | 7/31/2017 | Law firm | John Kelly |
| 1 | Senior Intelligence Director, NSC (ST) | Ezra Cohen-Watnick | U.S. Government (DIA) | RUP | 8/2/2017 | Oracle | Mike Barry |
| 1 | AP and Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President | Steve Bannon | Media | RUP | 8/18/2017 | Breitbart News | Unknown |
| 1 | AP and Director of Public Liaison (ST) | George Sifakis | Gov’t Relations | RUP | 8/18/2017 | Ideagen | Justin Clark |
| 1 | Deputy AP and Director of Presidential Advance (ST) | George Gigicos | Consulting | RUP | 8/22/2017 | Consulting | Robert L. Peede |
| 1 | National Security Adviser for VP | Andrea Thompson | McChrystal Group | Promoted | 9/11/2017 | Special Adviser in the Office of Policy Planning, U.S. State Department | Lt. Gen. (Ret) Keith Kellogg, Jr. |
| 1 | AP and Director of Strategic Communications (ST) | Hope Hicks | Trump Organization | Promoted | 9/12/2017 | Communications Director** | Mercedes Schlapp |
| 1 | DAP and Deputy Communications Director and Research Director | Raj Shah | RNC | Promoted | 9/12/2017 | Principal Deputy Press Secretary | Unknown |
| 1 | Deputy AP and Director of Oval Office Operations (ST) | Keith Schiller | Trump Organization | RUP | 9/20/2017 | Private Security Consulting | Jordan Karem |
| 1 | Deputy AP and Deputy White House Counsel (ST) | Greg Katsas | Law Firm | Resigned | 11/28/2017 | Federal judge, DC Circuit | Uttam Dhillon |
| 1 | AP and Director of Communications, Office of Public Liaison | Omarosa Manigault | Reality Television | RUP | 12/13/2017 | Celebrity Big Brother | Position abolished |
| 1 | Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Director of Budget Policy (ST) | Paul Winfree | Heritage Foundation | Resigned | 12/15/2017 | Heritage Foundation | Lance Leggitt |
| 1 | AP and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy | Rick Dearborn | U.S. Senate staff | Resigned | 12/23/2017 resignation announced, departed 3/13/2018 | The Cypress Group | Chris Liddell |
| Year | Position | Name | Prior job | Nature of departure* | Date of departure announcement | Where to? | Successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | AP and Staff Secretary (ST) | Rob Porter | U.S. Senate Staff | RUP | 2/7/2018 | Unknown | Derek Lyons |
| 2 | Senior Director of Legislative Affairs, NSC | Daniel Greenwood | Marines | Promoted | 2/9/2018 | Lateral move to Deputy AP and Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs | Paul J. Miller |
| 2 | AP and Director of Presidential Personnel (ST) | John DeStefano | U.S. House of Representatives Staff | Promoted | 2/9/2018 | AP and Counsel to the President overseeing Public Liaison, Personnel and Political Affairs | Sean Doocey (DAP) |
| 2 | AP for Intergovernmental and Technology Initiatives (ST) | Reed Cordish | Real Estate | Resigned | 2/16/2018 | Partner, Cordish Companies | Brooke Rollins |
| 2 | AP and Director of the National Economic Council | Gary Cohn | Goldman Sachs | Resigned | 3/6/2018 | Unknown | Larry Kudlow |
| 2 | CIA Director | Mike Pompeo | Member, House of Representatives (R-KS) | Promoted | 3/13/2018 | Secretary of State | Gina Haspel |
| 2 | DAP and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs | Justin Clark | Trump Campaign | Promoted | 3/13/2018 | Director, White House Office of Public Liaison | Douglas Hoelscher |
| 2 | Deputy CIA Director | Gina Haspel | CIA | Promoted | 3/13/2018 | CIA Director | Vaughan Bishop |
| 2 | AP and Director for Strategic Initiatives | Chris Liddell | WME/IMG | Promoted | 3/19/2018 | Deputy Chief of Staff | Unknown |
| 2 | AP for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (ST) | Thomas Bossert | Atlantic Council | RUP | 4/10/2018 | Unknown | Doug Fears*** |
| 2 | DAP and Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination | Carlos Diaz-Rosillo | Harvard University | Promoted | 6/19/2018 | Senior Deputy Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities | Unknown |
| 2 | DAP and and Senior Adviser to the Chief of Staff | Sean Cairncross | RNC | Promoted | Unknown (nominated for MCC 1/5/18) | Millennium Challenge Corp. | Unknown |
| 2 | Deputy Director, National Economic Council and International Economic Affairs (ST) | Everett Eissentat | Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) | Resigned | 7/15/2018 | General Motors | Clete Williams |
| 2 | AP and White House Director of Legislative Affairs (ST) | Marc Short | Trump Campaign | Resigned | 7/20/2018 | Guidepost Strategies and UVA | Shahira Knight |
| 2 | DAP and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Vice President | Jen Pavlik | Office of Governor Pence | Resigned | August 2018 | Keystone | Unknown |
| 2 | Counsel to the President | Donald McGahn | Trump Campaign | Resigned | 10/17/2018 | Jones Day | Pat Cipollone |
| 2 | SAP and Director of Communications for the First Lady | Stephanie Grisham | Trump Campaign | Promoted | November 2018 | Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications | Unknown |
| 2 | DAP and Director of White House Management, Office of Administration | Marcia Lee Kelly | RNC | Resigned | November 2018 | Trump Reelection Campaign | Monica Black |
| 2 | DAP and Political Director | Bill Stepien | Trump Campaign | Resigned | 12/7/2018 | Trump Reelection Campaign | Brian Jack |
| 2 | OMB Director | Mick Mulvaney | Member, House of Representatives (R-SC) | Promoted | 12/14/2018 | Acting Chief of Staff | Russell Vought |
| Year | Position | Name | Prior job | Nature of departure* | Date of departure announcement | Where to? | Successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | AP and Director of Domestic Policy Council (ST) | Andrew Bremberg | RNC | Promoted | January 2019 | U.S. Representative to UN in Geneva | Joe Grogan |
| 3 | Administrator, OIRA | Neomi Rao | George Mason Law School | Resigned | 3/13/2019 | Federal judge, D.C. Circuit | Paul Ray |
| 3 | SAP and Director of Organizational Structure and Human Capital | Kirk Ryan Marshall | Trump Campaign | Promoted | March 2019 | DAP and Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Organizational Structure | Unknown |
| 3 | Member, White House Council of Economic Advisers | Richard Burkhauser | Professor | Resigned | May 2019 | Cornell University | Unknown |
| 3 | Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, and Science; OMB | James P. Herz | Senior Policy Analyst, Budget Committee; House of Representatives | Promoted | 6/1/2019 | Chief Performance Officer, The Department of Energy | Unknown |
| 3 | Chair, White House Council of Economic Advisers (ST) | Kevin Hassett | American Enterprise Institute | Resigned | 6/2/2019 | Unknown | Tomas Philipson (acting) |
| 3 | DAP and Cabinet Secretary | William McGinley | Jones Day | Resigned | 6/28/2019 (July departure) | Vogel Group | Kristan King Nevins |
| 3 | Senior Director for Europe and Russia, NSC (ST) | Fiona Hill | Brookings Institution | Resigned | 6/17/2019 (August departure) | Unknown | Tim Morrison |
| 3 | Director of National Intelligence | Dan Coats | U.S. Senator | RUP | 7/28/2019 | King and Spalding | John Ratcliffe |
| 3 | AP and Special Representative for International Negotiations | Jason Greenblatt | Trump Organization | Resigned | 9/5/2019 | Unknown | Avi Berkowitz |
| 3 | Senior Director for Asia, NSC | Matthew Pottinger | U.S. Marine Corps | Promoted | 9/22/2019 | Deputy National Security Adviser | Unknown |
| Year | Position | Name | Prior job | Nature of departure* | Date of departure announcement | Where to? | Successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Deputy AP and Deputy Communications Director and Research Director | Jessica Ditto | Office of Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin; Trump campaign | Resigned | 3/30/2020 | Private sector | Unknown |
| 4 | AP and Chief of Staff to the First Lady (ST) | Lindsay Reynolds | The LBR Group/event planning | Resigned | 4/6/2020 | Family time | Stephanie Grisham |
| 4 | AP and Director of Social Media | Dan Scavino | Trump campaign | Promoted | 4/21/2020 | AP and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications | Unknown |
| 4 | Deputy AP for Legislative Affairs and Senate Deputy Director | Amy Swonger | Invariant GR, Principal | Promoted | 6/5/2020 | AP and Acting Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs | Unknown |
| 4 | Counselor to the President | Kellyanne Conway | Trump campaign | Resigned | 8/24/2020 | Unknown | Unknown |
| 4 | DAP and Senior Director for South and Central Asia | Lisa Cutris | Heritage Foundation | Resigned | 1/8/2021 | Center for New American Security | Unknown |
| SUMMARY: 60/65 (92%) “A Team” positions have turned over. |
|---|
| * Author’s note: The departure status was difficult to determine in some cases because media reports were often at odds with an individual’s claim that they were resigning. In the end, the category “resigned under pressure” was created to capture the general sentiment at the time of their departure. "(ST)" indicates a position that went through multiple instances of turnover; see the “Serial turnover” section below for more details. |
| ** Author’s note: Anthony Scaramucci was communications director for 11 days. He was succeeded by Hope Hicks, who resigned Feb. 28, 2018. On July 5, 2018, Bill Shine was appointed to the White House communications director role with a slightly different official title, “Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications”; he resigned on March 8, 2019. Stephanie Grisham subsequently took over both the communications director and press secretary roles. |
| *** Author’s note: After Thomas Bossert’s departure, incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton folded the position of “AP for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism” into the National Security Council with the new title of “Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor.” |
| Sources: Multiple news websites, LinkedIn, WhiteHouse.gov, and other government websites. |
Serial turnover within the Trump “A Team”
The turnover data above include only the president’s initial team of advisers and when one departs, the position falls out of the sample. One of the limitations of this approach is that it does not consider multiple departures within a single position, a common phenomenon within the Trump team. Set out below are the “A Team” positions that have had more than two occupants.
45% of President Trump’s “A Team” departures have undergone serial turnover as of January 20, 2021
| Position | Original | Replacement 1 | Replacement 2 | Replacement 3 | Replacement 4 | Replacement 5 | Replacement 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief of Staff | Reince Priebus | John Kelly | Mick Mulvaney (acting) | Mark Meadows | |||
| Deputy Chief of Staff** | Katie Walsh | Kirstjen Nielsen | Zachary Fuentes | Emma Doyle | John Fleming | ||
| Chief of Staff to the VP | Josh Pitcock | Nick Ayers | Marc Short | ||||
| Chief of Staff to the First Lady | Lindsay Reynolds | Stephanie Grisham | Unknown | ||||
| Communications Director* | Michael Dubke | Anthony Scaramucci | Hope Hicks | Bill Shine | Stephanie Grisham | Alyssa Farah | Unknown |
| Press Secretary | Sean Spicer | Sarah Huckabee Sanders | Stephanie Grisham | Kayleigh McEnany | |||
| Director of Strategic Communications | Hope Hicks | Mercedes Schlapp | Unknown | ||||
| Principal Deputy Press Secretary | Sarah Huckabee Sanders | Raj Shah | Hogan Gidley | Brian R. Morgenstern | |||
| Director of Public Liaison | George Sifakis | Justin Clark | Timothy Pataki | ||||
| Director of Oval Office Operations | Keith Schiller | Jordan Karem | Madeleine Westerhout | Nicholas F. Luna | |||
| Director of Presidential Personnel | John DeStefano | Sean Doocey | John McEntee | ||||
| Staff Secretary | Rob Porter | Derek Lyons | Unknown | ||||
| Director of Presidential Advance | George Gigicos | Robert L. Peede | Max Miller | Unknown | |||
| Deputy White House Counsel** | Greg Katsas | Uttam Dhillon | Patrick Philbin | ||||
| National Security Adviser | Michael Flynn | HR McMaster | John Bolton | Robert C. O'Brien | |||
| Deputy National Security Adviser | KT McFarland | Dina Powell/Ricky Waddell | Nadia Schadlow | Mira Ricardel | Charles Kupperman | Matthew Pottinger/Victoria Coates*** | Unknown |
| AP for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism | Thomas Bossert | Doug Fears | Peter Brown | Julia Nesheiwat | |||
| Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary, NSC | Keith Kellogg | Frederick Fleitz | Joan Virginia O’Hara | Matthias Mitman | |||
| Senior Director of Intelligence, NSC | Ezra Cohen Watnick | Michael Barry | Michael Ellis | ||||
| Senior Director for Europe and Russia, NSC | Fiona Hill | Tim Morrison | Andrew Peek | Tom Williams | Ryan Tully | Unknown | |
| Senior Director for Africa, NSC | Derek Harvey | Cyril Sartor | Elizabeth Erin Walsh | ||||
| Director of Domestic Policy Council | Andrew Bremberg | Joe Grogan | Brooke Rollins (acting) | ||||
| Deputy Director, National Economic Council and International Economic Affairs | Everett Eissenstat | Cletus Willems | Kelly Ann Shaw | Thomas Storch | Francis Brooke | ||
| Chair, White House Council of Economic Advisers | Kevin Hassett | Tomas Philipson (acting) | Tyler Goodspeed (acting) | Unknown | |||
| Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Director of Budget Policy | Paul Winfree | Lance Leggitt | Jenniver Bardley Lichter |
| SUMMARY: 27/60 (45%) “A Team” departures have turned over twice or more. |
|---|
| * Author's note: For the purposes of this study, we count Michael Dubke as the first communications director, since Sean Spicer was serving in a temporary capacity until the Trump administration filled the job with a permanent candidate. |
| ** Author's note: Notice that there are multiple deputies under the chief of staff and White House counsel. The data reflect an attempt to track just a single deputy position and note the successor. However, there is minimal publicly available information on presidential staffing. It is also the case that a new chief of staff may not have a “first among equals” deputy chief of staff, such that the role may have changed since the original occupant. The same is true for White House Counsel. While Greg Katsas may have been the “first among equals” among the Deputy White House Counsel positions in 2017, the role may have changed under the new White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone. |
| *** Author's note: Upon the departure of former Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman, National Security Adviser Robert C. O'Brien divided the duties of that position between Matthew Pottinger and Victoria Coates. On Feb. 20, 2020, the National Security Council said that Coates had left the position and been reassigned as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette; on Jan. 7, reports indicated that Pottinger had resigned (https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/national-security-adviser-resigns-trump-protest/index.html). |
Cabinet Turnover
Turnover in President Trump's Cabinet
The chart and table below are dedicated to tracking turnover in the Cabinet. They will also be updated as additional turnover occurs. Unlike the trackers above dedicated to the president’s “A Team,” these resources look at every departure from the president’s Cabinet, even if multiple people have occupied that position.
Notice of updated methodology
The current table of Cabinet-level turnover has been updated from a previous version, accessible here for reference, that was based on a different methodology; this change was made on May 21, 2019. This newer table provides data going back to President Reagan (1981) and adheres to a strict definition of Cabinet by only including the heads of the executive departments. While presidents often promote a position like EPA administrator to Cabinet-level status, these appointments are ad hoc, can be short-lived, and make it difficult to compare over time. Given the variability, we only include Senate-confirmed Cabinet members who are in the presidential line of succession, since this allows for greater consistency and standardization. More information on this update is available in a piece on Brookings’s FixGov blog. Additionally, since Reagan’s presidency, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security have been added to the list (increasing from 13 to 15 positions). Year of departure is determined by the date a Cabinet member announced they were resigning, regardless of their final end date.
Summary and analysis of Cabinet departures in the Trump administration
Set out below is a list of departures from the president’s Cabinet since the beginning of the Trump administration.
| Year | Position | Name | Prior job | Nature of departure | Date of departure announcement | Where to? | Successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Secretary of Homeland Security | John F. Kelly | U.S. Marine Corps | Promoted | 7/28/2017 | White House Chief of Staff | Kirstjen Nielsen* |
| 1 | Secretary of Health and Human Services | Tom Price | Member of the House | Resigned under pressure (RUP) | 9/29/2017 | Jackson Healthcare | Alex Azar |
| 2 | Secretary of State | Rex Tillerson | Exxon | RUP | 3/13/2018 | Unknown | Mike Pompeo |
| 2 | Secretary of Veterans Affairs | David Shulkin | U.S. Government (VA) | RUP | 3/28/2018 | Unknown | Robert Wilkie |
| 2 | Attorney General | Jeff Sessions | U.S. Senator | RUP | 11/7/2018 | Unknown | William Barr* |
| 2 | Secretary of Defense | Jim Mattis | Retired | Protest Resignation (PR) | 12/20/2018 | General Dynamics | Mark Esper* |
| 2 | Secretary of Interior | Ryan Zinke | Member of the House | RUP | 12/15/2018 | Artillery One | David Bernhardt |
| 3 | Secretary of Homeland Security | Kirstjen Nielsen | Deputy Chief of Staff | RUP | 4/7/2019 | Unknown | Kevin McAleenan (acting)* → Chad Wolf (acting)* |
| 3 | Secretary of Labor | Alex Acosta | FIU College of Law | RUP | 7/12/2019 | Unknown | Gene Scalia |
| 3 | Secretary of Energy | Rick Perry | Presidential candidate/Governor of Texas | Resigned | 10/17/2019 | Unknown | Dan Brouillette |
| 4 | Secretary of Defense | Mark Esper | U.S. Secretary of the Army | RUP | 11/9/2020 | Unknown | Christopher C. Miller (acting) |
| 4 | Attorney General | William Barr | Kirkland & Ellis LLP | Resigned | 12/14/2020 | Unknown | Jeffrey A. Rosen |
| 4 | Secretary of Transportation | Elaine Chao | Hudson Institute | Resigned | 1/7/2021 | Unknown | Unknown |
| 4 | Secretary of Education | Betsy DeVos | The Windquest Group | Resigned | 1/7/2021 | Unknown | Unknown |
| *Author’s note: An asterisk by the name of a successor denotes that individual is no longer serving in the Cabinet. |
| Sources: Agency websites, presidential library websites, and various news sources. Thanks to Elaine Kamarck and Nick Zeppos, who contributed to the initial data collection for this section. |
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