Several key members of the Trump administration have either left or were sacked in the first year of his presidency, here are some of the key members who quit prominent posts.
US President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday and announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Tillerson become the latest high-ranking member of the White House to exit the Trump administration.
In little over a year of Trump’s presidency, more than a dozen key members of his administration have either been sacked or resigned from their posts.
According to a report by Vox, the number of exits the Trump administration has seen in its first year is higher than the past five administrations have seen overall.
The Trump administration’s staff turnover during the period is around 34 percent. The second-highest first-year turnover was under President Ronald Regan at 17 percent.
Here are some of the notable exits from the White House under Trump:
Rob Porter
Porter resigned after being accused of domestic violence by his two ex-wives. Porter has denied the allegations.
White House officials initially defended him, with chief of staff John Kelly calling him a “man of true integrity and honour.”
Reince Priebus
Similar to Tillerson’s exit, Trump announced on Twitter that he was replacing Reince Priebus as the Chief of Staff with John Kelly.
News reports citing White House officials suggest that Trump told Priebus he wanted to make a change two weeks before he was fired.
Anthony Scaramucci
Scaramucci officially served as the White House Director of Communications for just six days before being fired.
A week after Scaramucci was hired, The New Yorker published a detailed account of an expletive-ridden phone conversation one of their reporters had with him.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “The president certainly felt that Anthony’s comments were inappropriate for a person in that position, and he didn’t want to burden Gen. Kelly.”
Sean Spicer
Spicer took over as the Press Secretary in January 2017. Spicer stepped down, just a few hours after Anthony Scaramucci was brought on board the Trump administration as communications director.
James Comey
FBI Director James Comey was sacked by Donald Trump, who the White House initially said, was acting on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They also criticised Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton emails investigation.
However, President Trump later said that it was his decision alone and that he was thinking about the FBI’s Russian election interference probe when he resolved to fire Comey.
Mike Flynn
Flynn was part of Trump’s campaign before becoming the National Security Adviser (NSA). He was at the White House for around three week before he resigned when it was learnt that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of meetings he had with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak prior to President Trump’s inauguration.
Hope Hicks
Hicks is one of Donald Trump’s longest-serving aide. While her resignation was announced on February 28, it will only go into effect a few weeks later.
Hicks’ resignation came a day after she was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee during which she said she had occasionally lied on Trump’s behalf, according to news reports.
Steve Bannon
Bannon was earlier Chief Executive Officer of Trump’s election campaign. Upon Trump’s election, Bannon was appointed as the President’s chief strategist, which was met with backlash.
Bannon has been the executive chairman of Breitbart News magazine which published articles promoting an alt-right movement.
News reports suggest that Bannon was fired because Trump was getting increasingly frustrated with him.
