10 Former Trump Officials Who Have Turned Against Him
These Former Trump Officials Are Now His Prime Detractors
As former president Donald Trump battles a barrage of cases against him, many of his former officials have abandoned ship. There has been a noticeable departure of former Trump allies, including officials who held high positions under the Trump administration. A recent tweet from @BidenHQ encapsulates the sentiment, "Even those who once stood by Trump are now speaking out against him." From advisers to cabinet members, many former Trump officials went on record explaining the drawbacks of another possible Trump administration. Here are 10 prominent former officials who have become vocal critics of the business mogul.
1. Trump’s Former Attorney General Bill Barr
Attorney William Pelham Barr held the esteemed position of the US Attorney General during the administrations of former presidents George H. W. Bush (1991–1993) and Trump (2019–2020). According to the recent Biden-Harris HQ tweet, the ex-attorney general strongly detests the business mogul turned politician. He was famously quoted asserting, "Trump is a consummate narcissist who constantly engages in reckless conduct. He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest."
2. Trump’s Former National Security Advisor John Bolton
Bolton, a close confidant of the outgoing president, charged recently that the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has a clear political vision and viewpoint. Bolton, who was a member of Trump's White House in both 2018 and 2019, cautioned that if re-elected, Trump may abandon the NATO defense alliance, cut off aid to Ukraine notwithstanding Russia's invasion in 2022, give China the confidence to blockade Taiwan, and overall embrace isolationism, according to Reuters. He reportedly said of Trump, "Having been in the room with him, dictators think Trump is a laughing fool and they are prepared to take advantage of him."
3. Former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao
When Chao was named labor secretary under President George W. Bush's presidency, she became the first Asian American woman to hold a cabinet position. Later during the Trump administration, she served as the Secretary of Transportation until she resigned on January 7, 2021, a day after the Capitol riots, as reported by NBC News. "January 6 has deeply troubled me in a way I cannot set aside. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power, I believe in democracy," she explained.
4. Trump’s Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper
Trump’s former Defense Secretary Mark Esper was a close ally of the former president but later became one of his biggest critics. When recently asked on Fox News as to what he'd say about Trump's threat to democracy, he responded, "Given the events of January 6, how he undermined the election results, incited people to come to DC, and failed to call them off. To me, that threatens our democracy." According to The New York Times, Esper in his memoir, A Sacred Oath, also revealed that Trump had asked him at least twice about launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and eradicate the cartels.
5. Trump's Former White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah Griffin
In 2020, Alyssa Farah Griffin served as President Trump's assistant and as the White House's Director of Strategic Communications. She now co-hosts The View with Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, and Sunny Hostin where she frequently takes a dig at Trump. As a CNN political commentator, she recently slammed Trump, saying, "We worked with him, we knew him, and we are telling you, America, this man is unfit to be president." In response to a question from CNN's John Berman regarding the extent to which Trump 'missed' or misrepresented facts during her time working in his administration, Griffin replied, “I have said this before, he is not as sharp as he was in 2016. And not even as sharp as he was in 2020.”
6. Trump’s Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
In an exclusive statement to CNN, John Kelly, Trump's longest-serving White House Chief of Staff, delivered his most severe critique to date of the outgoing president in October 2023. He famously said, “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person who did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family– for all Gold Star families– on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France,” is certainly not fit to be a President.
7. Trump’s Former Defense Secretary James Mattis
James Mattis, the distinguished Marine general who resigned from his position as secretary of defense in December 2018 due to disagreement with President Trump's Syria strategy, had been reticent about Trump's presidency. However, he has finally broken his quiet, penning an astounding statement in which he accuses the president of directing the US military to violate American citizens' fundamental rights and criticizes him for splitting the country. “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution,” he says, as reported by The Atlantic.
8. Former VP Mike Pence
Former running mate and eventual vice president to Trump's 2016 presidency Mike Pence has been critical of the former president after January 6. He recently revealed in an interview that he explicitly refuses to back Trump as president, "I have profound differences with Trump. Many think it’s just over January 6. It also has to do with the fact that he is walking away from fiscal responsibility and a commitment to America’s leadership in the world. I cannot endorse Trump."
9. Former Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews
Trump's former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews resigned from her post on January 6 that very same day because she believed the president's "refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible." She was one of the few White House employees to quit. At the eighth public session of the House committee looking into the attack on January 6, Matthews gave testimony on July 21. During the hearing, she stated that on January 6, she and other West Wing staff members approached Trump's acquaintances to urge him to denounce the violence at the Capitol.
10. Former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson
Following January 6, Cassidy Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, became highly critical of the president. In her testimony on June 28 before the House Jan. 6 committee, she provided details about what the former president and Meadows knew in the days leading up to the attack and how they responded. She also gave a first-hand account of the president's frustration, and how he attacked his security detail for telling him they were unable to secure a trip to the Capitol because of the rioters' escalating violence. Hutchinson went into depth about Trump's unwillingness to accept in the wake of the rioters' violence that the election was over and he had lost.
