Trump fired two of his eight cabinet-level women this spring, two more resigned, and men took all four chairs inside eleven weeks. This week he fired Kimberly Guilfoyle at his new press secretary's first briefing and began asking allies who should replace Susie Wiles, the most powerful woman he has left.
In March 2025 Trump boasted he had "more women in our Cabinet than any Republican president in the history of our country." Eight. A year later he started clearing them out. He fired Kristi Noem on March 5, after she testified he approved tens of millions in ads starring her. He fired Pam Bondi on April 2 over the Epstein files and his retribution demands. The labor secretary resigned April 20 under an inspector general's investigation. Tulsi Gabbard resigned May 22, her husband's cancer on the record and Trump calling her "softer" on Iran after she would not tell Congress the country was an imminent threat. Four women, eleven weeks. Four men, one of them the housing regulator who now acts as intelligence chief while keeping his old job.
The New York Times counted it Wednesday: half the women gone, every chair to a man. A Brookings scholar told the paper she had "never seen a situation where all of the first set of cabinet departures have been of one gender — all women." The White House says Trump judges "merit and qualifications."
The Times listed who stayed. The FBI director survived the government plane, the SWAT detail for his girlfriend and the drinking allegations he denies, the commerce secretary survived the Epstein files naming him as an island visitor, and the defense secretary survived putting war plans in a Signal chat. Mike Waltz added the journalist to that chat and got the UN seat promised to Elise Stefanik, who then quit Congress.
On Tuesday Katie Zacharia opened her first briefing as press secretary, took three questions in fourteen minutes and read out an ambassador's firing: "We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign." A donor says Guilfoyle asked him in July 2025 to wire $100,000 to her American Express before her confirmation; the Journal first reported the texts. Guilfoyle calls it false; her lawyers say the texts were not authentic. Trump's farewell: "I didn't like what I read," and "She wasn't a member of my family." She dated his son.
Politico reported Thursday that Trump is asking allies who should replace Wiles. Four sources, five names, and one of the five already sits in Gabbard's chair. "She's burned a lot of people," a Republican operative close to the White House said. Trump, in writing: "TOTAL FAKE NEWS… Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff… and has my COMPLETE confidence."
