Friend, foe or inmate: What happened to Trump’s first cabinet?
Few who served in his first administration are still on speaking terms with Trump – and some are openly hostile. Joe Sommerlad writes
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump’s first stint as commander-in-chief between 2017 and 2021 was anything but smooth sailing, with firings and acrimonious departures as much a feature of his administration as it was central to his hit NBC reality show The Apprentice.
And, the years that followed have also been eventful for the most notable characters from his presidency.
Some have ended up in prison or criminally charged in connection to their involvement with the former president.
Some have become his most vocal critics, sounding the alarm about the dangers of a second term.
Few are still on speaking terms with him.
Now, with the election, and therefore a possible Trump second term, just days away, here’s a reminder of some of the key figures in Trump’s first administration – and where they are now:
Mike Pence
Trump’s vice president stuck by him throughout his presidency but their relationship irreparably collapsed over the events of 6 January 2021. A mob of MAGA supporters stormed the US Capitol, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” and erecting a gallows, based on Trump’s false claims that his VP could stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
Pence briefly challenged Trump for the Republican nomination last year before dropping out of the race, declining to endorse him.
Mike Pompeo
Along with the likes of education, housing and transportation secretaries Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson and Elaine Chao, Pompeo was one of the few members of the administration not to fall out with Trump, serving first as director of the CIA and then secretary of state.
He has since joined the conservative think-tank the Hudson Institute, the board of directors of an Israeli counter-disinformation company and a Texas criminal law firm, and has also founded a PAC and published a memoir.
Steve Mnuchin
A former Hollywood movie mogul with executive producer credits on a string of blockbusters between 2014 and 2017, Mnuchin served as Trump’s treasury secretary for the duration of his administration and was another rare member of the Cabinet with whom he had a non-contentious relationship.
That said, both he and Pompeo were reportedly involved in discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president over the Capitol riot.
He has since kept a low profile.
Jim Mattis
A Marine Corps four-star general, “Mad Dog” Jim Mattis commanded forces in the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War before becoming Trump’s first defense secretary.
After numerous disagreements over Middle East policy, Mattis resigned midway through Trump’s term in opposition to his decision to withdraw American troops from Syria. He was replaced by Mark Esper and has since retired.
John Bolton
Trump’s hawkish second national security adviser, appointed in April 2018 to succeed HR McMaster, left the administration in September 2019 after falling out with his boss, despite successfully lobbying for the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
Bolton, who said he would be prepared to testify against Trump at his first impeachment trial should he be subpoenaed by the Senate, has since emerged as an outspoken anti-Trump talking head and wrote a memoir about his time working for the businessman in 2020.
He also returned to an old post, working as an adviser to the Rhone Group private equity fund.
Bill Barr
Trump’s second attorney general, who replaced Jeff Sessions and shielded him from the Mueller report in 2019, resigned shortly after the Justice Department found no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election, contradicting the president’s baseless narrative that the White House was stolen from him.
Barr subsequently became more critical of Trump, memorably likening him to “a defiant nine-year-old kid who’s always pushing his glass towards the end of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it”.
John Kelly
Initially Trump’s homeland security secretary before being moved to White House chief of staff to replace the short-lived Reince Priebus, John Kelly believed he could be one of the “adults in the room” to keep Trump in line.
He left in dismay in 2019 and has since retired from public service. In recent weeks, he has spoken out to warn against a second Trump administration, calling the GOP candidate a fascist and recalling his alleged praise of Aolf Hilter.
Mark Meadows
Trump’s third and final chief of staff, a former North Carolina congressman, ended up being held in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to talk to the House January 6 committee. He was also indicted, along with others, in both Georgia and Arizona over the unlawful attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Steve Bannon
The ex-Breitbart editor only actually served as Trump’s senior counselor for the first eight months of his presidency but has remained a major figure in right-wing media.
Like Meadows, he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 panel, was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress by a jury and, after taking his fight all the way to the Supreme Court, was finally jailed in Connecticut from July 1 to October 29 2024.
He re-emerged to a hero’s welcome from the MAGA movement to resume podcasting just in time for Election Day.
Kellyanne Conway
Immortalised for coining the Orwellian phrase “alternative facts” in answer to the dispute over the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration, Conway served as his White House senior counselor between 2017 and 2020.
She remains a popular guest on conservative media and split from her husband George Conway, who is one of the most outspoken of the “Never Trump” Republicans.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders was Trump’s press secretary from 2017 to 2019, spending her days defending him as the adminstration stumbled from one publicity disaster to the next.
She was last heard from in September for attacking Harris for not having children of her own to keep her “humble”, despite the vice president having two step-children.
Stephanie Grisham
Sanders’s successor lasted less than a year in the job and has since come out as an outspoken opponent of Trump, even addressing this summer’s Democratic National Convention.
Speaking to CNN earlier this year, she said of the 45th president: “He used to tell me when I was press secretary, ‘Go out there and say this.’
“And if it was false, he would say, ‘It doesn’t matter, Stephanie. Just say it over and over and over again, people will believe it.’”
Anthony Scaramucci
The brash New Yorker, who famously lasted just 10 days as communications director, has built a successful media career since leaving the White House, regularly speaking out against Trump and currently co-hosting the US edition of the popular The Rest is Politics podcast.
Nikki Haley
The former South Carolina governor was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations but earned his lasting emnity by running against him for the Republican nomination in 2024, where he mocked her remorselessly as “Birdbrain” and even questioned her husband’s military service.
Incredibly, she subsequently endorsed him, but Trump has largely shunned her help in campaigning.
Peter Navarro
Like Bannon, Trump’s former trade adviser enthusiastically pushed election conspiracy theories and was jailed for ignoring subpoenas from Congress relating to January 6.
Navarro received a rapturous reception from Trump supporters when he emerged from prison in Florida, going on later that same day to address the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
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