Pam Bondi’s sudden removal as attorney general was followed almost immediately by a symbolic moment inside the Justice Department — her official portrait taken down and thrown int a trash bin.
MS Now reported how quickly the former head of the Justice Department’s picture had been taken down, and shared a snap of it. Apparently, the speed and the manner that the portrait was thrown away shows how deeply the department disliked her.
Trump fired Bondi after months of upheavals where she faced many accusations, and he was taking heat for not letting her go. It is the second Cabinet member in less than a month that he has let go. Kristi Noem was removed in early March, and was replaced by Markwayne Mullin, who was sworn in recently. Replacing Bondi, for now, is Todd Blanche who has been tapped as the acting Attorney General position in the meantime.
Pam Bondi’s portrait was taken down at DOJ and tossed in a trash bin soon after her firing. MS NOW obtained the photo. The move reflects how deeply unpopular she was among career officials. @KDilanianMSNOW & @CarolLeonnig scoop https://t.co/leeXsrV7fy pic.twitter.com/LrvKu5NgAo
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) April 3, 2026
He thanked Trump for the position, and Blanche also praised and thanked Bondi who had been his boss before she got fired. He stated, “Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction, and I’m grateful for her leadership and friendship.” Blanche valued her as his friend.
Inside the DOJ, thousands left their jobs because they didn’t want to follow her as Attorney General. Others were simply forced out. Some saw the portrait’s removal as a quiet moment of frustration for the time that she was the DOJ chief. It was also very symbolic.
When Bondi first took office in 2025, she started off on the wrong foot with some early decisions which rankled some staff members. The incident that stood out was when she saw the portraits of Joe Biden, and former AG Merrick Garland in a secure part of the DOH offices. She then demoted the highly-regarded acting chief of the national security division, Devin DeBacker, where the photo was hanging.
Bondi herself recounted the incident, saying, “I went up on the seventh floor, which is the national security division. The entire floor is a SCIF, so no one can get in there.” She then went on to describe what she did next.
“So I was able to get the code, open the door, and I look on the wall and see President Biden, Kamala Harris, and Merrick Garland’s paintings still hanging,” she stated. Bondi decided to act decisively when she made the discovery.
The Daily Mail reports Pam Bondi begged Trump not to fire her during a dramatic White House confrontation before his speech last night.
He fired her anyway.
The woman who said “DOJ is done” on the Epstein files.
Who dropped 23,000 criminal cases.
Who was scheduled to testify… pic.twitter.com/Yo299bGU8I
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) April 2, 2026
“I personally took all three photos down,” she said. “I put them in front of someone who said to me, ‘Oh well, maintenance is really slow here. I said, ‘Well it took me about 30 seconds to get them off the wall.’” One employee appears to still be bitter about the incident and remarked, “They better take her picture down.”
Jeffrey Epstein provided more headaches for Bondi as she was criticized for how she handled the documents relating to him. In February, she claimed that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk now,” only to deny months later that it did not exist at all. This of course affected her credibility.
When Trump announced her dismissal, he also said that she would be moved into a private sector role. Bondi said that she was “thrilled” about it, and that she would “continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.”
