Donald Trump on Friday said Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, will leave her post, a major shake-up of his inner circle that comes amid a steady exodus of senior female officials from his administration.
The president announced her ouster – and her replacement, by the immigration hardliner Stephen Miller – in a post on Truth Social, days after a sweeping blue wave gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. Wiles’s departure leaves behind an overwhelmingly male leadership team.
“I wanted to make a change,” he told reporters on Friday. “I think Susie’s done a very good job … Stephen’s been great and we’ve got to make moves.”
Wiles, who reportedly handed in her resignation on Thursday night, said her role as chief of staff “has been the honor of a lifetime,” adding: “I’m so proud to have been a part of what we’ve accomplished together, from securing our border and cutting taxes to strengthening our economy and putting America first.”
Wiles’s exit follows a string of high-profile resignations and dismissals of women in the Trump administration. In recent months, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was ousted just five days after taking up the role, while former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and former attorney general Pam Bondi were also dismissed.
Former national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard reportedly resigned under pressure, while Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former US ambassador to Greece, has also departed her post.
As high-ranking women left the administration, Wiles, diagnosed with breast cancer, stayed put, with Trump even claiming at one point: “She’s going to be here for a long time”. Wiles announced in September that she was cancer-free.
Just a day before Trump’s announcement of Wiles’s ouster, Harmeet Dhillon, a staunch Trump ally and controversial head of the justice department’s civil rights division, also resigned, marking yet another high-profile woman’s departure from the Trump administration.
Dhillon’s resignation comes amid expectations Democrats will use their majority in Congress to investigate federal agencies under Trump, including the US justice department, which has repeatedly been accused of being weaponized by the administration to pursue Trump’s own political enemies.
Other justice department officials have also since resigned amid the major post-midterm personnel shakeup, including John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, as well as Jason Reding Quiñones, a key attorney that led inquiries into Trump’s rivals.
Only a handful of women remain in Trump’s cabinet, including agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins and Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration.
Natalie Harp, the 35-year-old political aide, remains a frequent presence by the president’s side at public events. Harp has previously written letters to the president in which she described him as “my guardian and protector”.