More White House firings could be coming – reports
Donald Trump is said to be considering removing other officials in his cabinet after forcing Pam Bondi from her role as attorney general.
The president is unhappy with the performance of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, Politico reported.
“He’s very angry and he’s going to be moving people,” an unnamed official with the administration told the outlet.
Trump also polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief, the Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, significant staffing changes are underway at the Pentagon where defense secretary Pete Hegseth ousted the army’s top officer and two other high ranking officials on Thursday.
Key events
Summary
This blog is winding down. Here’s a look at today’s developments:
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Donald Trump has fired Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, dismissing a loyalist who reshaped the justice department. In a post on social media, the president announced that Bondi would transition to “a much needed and important new job in the private sector”. He added that Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, would serve as acting attorney general.
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The president is said to be considering removing other officials in his cabinet, according to media reports, and is unhappy with the performance of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.
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The Pentagon confirmed that Randy George, a general and the US army chief of staff, stepped down after he was asked to take early retirement. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly moving ahead with multiple firings within the Pentagon, including David Hodne, the commanding general of the US army transformation and training command, and Maj Gen William Green Jr, the army’s chief of chaplains.
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The US Department of the Interior said it would further reduce its staff with a deferred resignation program and offers of voluntary early retirement.
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Hegseth also announced that service members will be allowed to carry personal firearms on military installations in the US, effectively overhauling a 1992 rule that barred civilians and off-duty military personnel from carrying guns on bases.
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Donald Trump lavished praise on the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday afternoon, describing the body as “hardworking” after authorities approved his $400m ballroom project.
More White House firings could be coming – reports
Donald Trump is said to be considering removing other officials in his cabinet after forcing Pam Bondi from her role as attorney general.
The president is unhappy with the performance of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, Politico reported.
“He’s very angry and he’s going to be moving people,” an unnamed official with the administration told the outlet.
Trump also polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief, the Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, significant staffing changes are underway at the Pentagon where defense secretary Pete Hegseth ousted the army’s top officer and two other high ranking officials on Thursday.
The US Department of the Interior said it would further reduce its staff with a deferred resignation program and offers of voluntary early retirement.
Secretary Doug Burgum announced the move as part of a “strategic initiative to improve resource management” and “[streamline] outdated bureaucracy”.
“Effective stewardship requires disciplined management of the resources entrusted to us,” Burgum said in a press release. “By modernizing our operations we’re strengthening our ability to carry out Interior’s mission and deliver world-class service for the American people.”
The Trump administration has made significant job cuts across federal agencies over the last year, including in the interior department, which is down 11,000 employees.
Pete Hegseth is reportedly moving ahead with multiple firings within the Pentagon. The defense department confirmed earlier on Thursday that Randy George, a general and the US army chief of staff, had stepped down from his role after being asked to take early retirement.
The Washington Post is now reporting that others have also been ousted including David Hodne, the commanding general of the US army transformation and training command, and Maj Gen William Green Jr, the army’s chief of chaplains.
Donald Trump lavished praise on the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday afternoon, describing the body as “hardworking” after authorities approved his $400m ballroom project.
“For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for Grand Parties, State Visits, and even, in the Modern Day, Inaugurations,” the president wrote. “I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project, which is on time and under budget, underway.”
The decision came after a judge ruled construction on the project must stop, and that work could not continue without approval from Congress, drawing ire from Trump.
Lauren Gambino
Epstein accusations and pressure from the boss: Bondi’s time as Trump’s chief enforcer
Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, removing the nation’s chief law enforcement officer after months of mounting frustration over her handling of the Epstein files and her faltering attempts to prosecute the president’s political enemies.
“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday. He said she would be replaced by her deputy, Todd Blanche, on an interim basis.
Here’s a look at her tenure as attorney general:
The Pentagon has confirmed that Randy George, a general and the US army chief of staff, has been asked to take early retirement, the Associated Press reported.
George, the army’s top uniformed officer, has held his post since August 2023 and was expected to remain in the role until 2027. He previously served in the Gulf War and both Iraq and Afghanistan and worked as defense secretary Lloyd Austin’s top aide.
His ouster comes as Pete Hegseth has sought to remake the department of defense with the firings of military leaders – the secretary has fired more than a dozen top generals since last year.
Pete Hegseth signs memo allowing US service members to carry private guns on bases
Fran Lawther
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that service members will be allowed to carry personal firearms on military installations in the US, effectively overhauling a 1992 rule that barred civilians and off-duty military personnel from carrying guns on bases.
Donald Trump had promised to scrap the rule during his 2024 campaign. A directive approved in November 2025 said base commanders “may grant permission” to personnel to carry firearms. Hegseth’s memo today appears to take this a step further by making it a “presumption” that service personnel can carry a private gun on base.
Hegseth linked the decision to shootings at Fort Stewart Holloman air force base in Georgia and Pensacola naval air station in Florida. The suspect in the Fort Stewart shooting is a US soldier who reportedly told a military judge he used his personal firearm when he shot five people on the base last August.
In a video statement on X, the defense secretary appeared to sign a directive after saying “our war fighters defend the right of others to carry; they should be able to carry themselves”.
He added: “The memo I’m signing today directs installation commanders to allow requests for personal protection to carry a privately owned firearm with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”
Sam Levine
Pam Bondi’s swift dismissal on Thursday underscores a reality that has met Trump loyalists from Jeff Sessions to Kristi Noem – no amount of loyalty is enough to save oneself from being dumped by Donald Trump.
Since the president assumed office last year, there have been few people more important to his effort to remake government than Bondi, his longtime friend.
It wasn’t enough.
Read the full analysis here:
Pete Hegseth has reportedly asked Randy George, the US army chief of staff, to step down from his position.
CBS News reported on Tuesday that the defense secretary asked the general to retire rather than serve in the role until next year. The outlet, citing anonymous sources, said that Hegseth wanted to see George replaced with someone who will execute his and the president’s “vision” for the army.
The change was reportedly unrelated to a recent incident involving army training helicopters hovering over Kid Rock’s home. Hegseth had reversed the army’s suspension of the crews involved and said there would be no investigation of the matter.
Democrats continue to celebrate Bondi’s firing, while warning that the effects of her tenure at the justice department will “reverberate for years to come”.
California senator Alex Padilla said that Bondi’s DoJ pursued investigations into Trump’s political enemies, sought to “coerce” states into turning over voter rolls and “dodged accountability” over the Epstein files and that Americans “always deserved better”.
He added: “Trump has raised the price of our food, healthcare and gas, initiated an unauthorized war with Iran, and militarized federal agents against Americans. This firing does not change the facts of Trump’s disaster of an administration.”
