Trump teases post-midterm Cabinet shakeup
President Donald Trump said Monday that it’s likely there will be a shakeup of his Cabinet after the midterm elections, though he declined to elaborate on any changes aside from filling the vacant U.N. ambassador post.
Trump told reporters before he left Washington for his final campaign blitz that “administrations usually make changes after midterms” and predicted that his White House “will be probably right in that category too, it’s very customary.”
Any coming personnel moves wouldn’t be placed on any sort of timeline, the president said, except for naming his new U.N. ambassador, an announcement he said would come “before the end of the week.”
The current ambassador to the U.N., former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, unexpectedly tendered her resignation last month after less than two years on the job, though in an open press meeting with Trump in the Oval Office he said he’d known she would step down for about six months.
“For the most part I love my Cabinet, we have some really talented people,” Trump said Monday, touting new trade deals his administration had negotiated and saying his Cabinet had accomplished “so many different things including foreign affairs.”
The first two years of the Trump administration have seen remarkable levels of turnover, with eight Cabinet officials having been fired or resigned thus far.
Asked whether he would make any changes at the Defense secretary post, Trump seemed surprised. “Why would I do that?” he asked. “Is that the new rumor?”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has reportedly clashed with the president repeatedly, and his future was questionable after a White House expose published this summer quoted Mattis as bashing Trump’s intelligence.
Trump also would not say whether he would be getting rid of his Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who last week was referred to the Justice Department by Interior’s inspector general for possible ethical breaches. Trump said he hadn’t read any of the reports about Zinke, but praised the job he’d done so far.
“I think he’s done a very good job, I do think he’s done a very good job,” he said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is also atop most lists of White House officials likely to depart after the midterms, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president, said Monday morning that there would be a new leader at the Justice Department “most likely early next year.”