Trump's White House Is Losing Staff at Record Numbers
Like shameless, self-preserving rats fleeing a racist sinking ship, staffers are exiting the Trump White House in record numbers, according to an Associated Press analysis of the administration’s just-released 2018 financial disclosure forms.
Per the AP, 141 staffers who were working in the Trump administration on June 30th of last year are no longer there 365 days later.
That 37% turnover rate marks a record high, which looks even worse as you delve deeper into the data. As the White House Transitions Project noted following the release of this year’s financial disclosure forms, Trump has the highest overall turnover of any recent president at this point in his tenure. A whopping 61% of his top staffers have left since the start of his presidency—a turnover rate nearly 20% higher than the next most-abandoned president, Bill Clinton, who had a 42% turnover rate. (President George W. Bush had the lowest rate with just 5% turnover during his first 17 months in office)
It’s hardly a secret that the Trump administration has been chewing through and spitting out staff at an advanced pace. And, honestly, good riddance to bad rubbish. But as WHTP director and Towson University professor emeritus Martha Joynt Kumar wryly concluded (emphasis added):
The turnover rate has been significantly higher among the top-tier staff in the Trump White House than was the case in earlier White Houses. The impact of the staff churn has been felt in all three types of White House offices: process, policy, and relationships. With that turnover comes significant difficulty in developing and coordinating policy and implementing it from the White House side.
The financial disclosure form, and analysis thereof, comes amidst renewed rumors (some since confirmed) of mass White House departures, including Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, legislative affairs director Marc Short, and Chief of Staff John Kelly. However, according to a recent report from ABC News, many of those staffers making a dash for the exit have agreed to stay on just long enough to help the president install another Supreme Court justice over the summer.