§43 —
On the best people
Democrat
27 TO 11
The rest of the building. The Partnership for Public Service counted 27 departures of Senate-confirmed officials in the first eighteen months, against 11 in the same stretch of the first term — three Cabinet secretaries among them, and the heads of the CDC, the FDA, the IRS and the Navy 12. Brookings puts turnover among the most senior White House staff at 54 percent 3. In 2025 about 49 nominations were withdrawn, among them attorney general, the CDC, the United Nations, NASA and the Office of Special Counsel 45.
And the one the public watched happen: the editor of The Atlantic was added to a Signal chat of senior officials on March 11, 2025, and saw strike details for Yemen arrive there on March 15 6. The best people were promised in 2015. By the count, they have had to be replaced more than twice as often as last time.
Sources
- 27 Senate-confirmed departures in 18 months against 11 in the first term — Partnership for Public Service, 23 July 2026 ↑
- Departures include three Cabinet secretaries and the heads of the CDC, FDA, IRS and Navy — NBC News, July 2026 ↑
- Turnover among the most senior White House staff of 54 percent as of 20 August 2026 — Brookings, 24 August 2026 ↑
- About 49 nominations withdrawn in 2025 — Brookings ↑
- The withdrawn nominees, including the Office of Special Counsel — Newsweek, 22 October 2025 ↑
- The Atlantic's editor was added to the chat on 11 March 2025; strike details were posted on 15 March — ABC News timeline ↑
Republican
THE BEST PEOPLE
The promise predates the first campaign's primaries. In August 2015 he told The Washington Post: "I'm going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people. We want top of the line professionals" 1. It became a refrain, and it deserves its strongest reading: a president who hires from outside the usual pipeline is betting that loyalty and speed beat résumés.
On one measure the bet has held better than the headlines suggest. The Cabinet itself had turned over by 20 percent — three positions — as of late August, by the Brookings tracker 2. For a term that began with a mandate to shake up the agencies, keeping four in five department heads is a fact on this side of the page. The rest of the building is on the other.
Sources
- "I'm going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people. We want top of the line professionals" — August 2015 interview with The Washington Post — MS NOW ↑
- Cabinet turnover of 20 percent (three positions); "A-Team" turnover of 54 percent as of 20 August 2026 — Brookings, 24 August 2026 ↑
“I'm just going to read the list. A nominee for attorney general, withdrawn. A nominee for the CDC, pulled before the hearing. A nominee for the United Nations, pulled. A nominee for NASA, pulled. A nominee for the Office of Special Counsel, withdrawn. About forty-nine withdrawals in a year. Twenty-seven departures of confirmed officials in eighteen months. More than half of the top staff turned over. That's the list. Sorry — I'm going, I'm going. The promise was the best people. How many times do you have to hire the best people?”— Lou
“"Only the best and most serious people." Then the defense secretary posting strike details into a group chat with a magazine editor in it, forty-nine nominations pulled in one year, and twenty-seven confirmed officials out the door in eighteen months — against eleven the first time around. That's not a cabinet. That's a revolving door with a flag pin.”
“Turnover is a sign of high standards: when you only hire the best, you have to keep hiring them, and twenty-seven departures simply means twenty-seven people were found to be less than the best, which is exactly what the process is designed to reveal.”