With his supporters restless and an unpopular war pitching his approval rating into freefall, Donald Trump has launched a new purge of his administration with a string of senior officials in the line of fire.
Amid growing criticism of the war with Iran, Trump abruptly fired his attorney general, Pam Bondi, in a vain bid to change the narrative last week.
In her 14 months in the job, Bondi eagerly dispatched any pretence of independence at the Justice Department, launching investigations into Trump’s enemies and hanging an image of the president’s face outside DoJ headquarters. In the president’s eyes, however, she did not go far enough.
Bondi’s sacking came a month after the departure of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem. The public face of Trump’s mass deportation programme, Noem – dubbed “ICE Barbie” by critics – paid the price for turning the immigration crackdown into a self-promoting crusade. Her inglorious tenure came to a head with the fallout from a $220m advertising campaign that featured Noem riding horses on the American plains and cost more than most Hollywood blockbusters.
The question now is, who’s next?
Until now, Trump had balked at ditching his closest lieutenants in his second term, reluctant to give a scalp to the Democrats or the press. But the swift departures of Bondi and Noem suggest a return to the revolving-door chaos of his first term.
More departures are rumoured to be imminent, as Trump abandons his effort to project stability. FBI director Kash Patel, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard are among the names rumoured to be in the line of fire. Senior officials anxious to avoid the president’s eye are frantically trying to shift attention elsewhere.
“They all hate each other, and they’re all briefing against each other all the time,” said one source close to the White House. As the war in Iran drags on, pressure is also rising on Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defence secretary. The former Fox News host is widely seen as out of his depth amid mounting turmoil at the Pentagon.
Even before the conflict with Iran, Hegseth had brought the Maga culture wars to the top ranks of the US military. The sacking last week of Randy A George, the Army chief of staff, along with two other senior generals, was only the latest in a string of politically motivated purges as Hegseth, consumed by paranoia, seeks to shore up his own position.
The defence secretary’s rhyming rhetoric of violence – “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct” – has been pilloried on Saturday Night Live, and prompted horror from former officers. His eagerness to throw out the rules of engagement and the laws of armed conflict has been seen as an exhortation to commit war crimes.
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One Maga consultant close to the administration said of the recent firings: “The president does not like it when he’s perceived to be losing control of events. He likes to bend the narrative to his will.
“When events slip beyond his control, he lashes out. We’re seeing that now, with allies abroad and cabinet changes at home.”
Photograph by AP Photo/John McDonnell, File