List of dismissals and resignations in the first Trump administration

Many political appointees of Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, resigned or were dismissed during Trump's first term. Multiple publications have called attention to the record-setting turnover rate in the first year of that term.^[1][2][3] Several Trump appointees, including National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price have had the shortest service tenures in the history of their respective offices.^[a]

Trump articulated the reasons for the break in custom, saying: "We have acting people. The reason they are acting is because I'm seeing how I like them, and I'm liking a lot of them very, very much. There are people who have done a bad job, and I let them go. If you call that turmoil, I don't call that turmoil. I say that is being smart. That's what we do."^[4]

For comprehensiveness, the list below includes, in addition to dismissals and resignations, routine job changes such as promotions (e.g., Gina Haspel from CIA Deputy Director to Director), officials moving to a comparable position (e.g., John F. Kelly from Secretary of Homeland Security to Chief of Staff), and acting or temporary officials being replaced by permanent ones. The list does not include many lower-level positions, however, such as that of executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Matthew Doherty, whom Trump dismissed in November 2019,^[5] without a replacement to lead the council that was created in 1987. But some less prominent officials are listed because their departure was newsworthy.

Officials who resigned in the aftermath of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, well into the then-underway presidential transition of Trump's successor Joe Biden, when their term would have ended soon anyway, are also listed on this page.