(AFP) – The abrupt exit of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, one day after Republicans were stomped in midterm elections, adds her to a growing list of women who have departed top roles in President Donald Trump’s administration since the year began. At the beginning of his second term, the 80-year-old Republican boasted that he was “thrilled to say that we have more women in our cabinet than any Republican president in the history of our country.” At that point, there were eight women in top roles, out of more than 20 such positions. Eighteen months later, there are only three left: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and Kelly Loeffler, who heads the Small Business Administration.
Half the women were pushed out over three months in the spring. First went Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who became the face of Trump’s violent anti-immigration offensive. She was followed by Trump’s top federal prosecutor Pam Bondi, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence. Most recently, one day after Republicans lost in the midterms, Wiles announced her departure.
– Double standard –
“Is he out of women?” Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said last spring, after being asked who would be next to meet that fate. “Trump only seems to have the capability to fire female secretaries,” the congresswoman said, adding: “If you’re a man in the Trump administration, it seems that they reward misconduct.” For Trump, a former beauty pageant organizer, women are about appearances, Colorado State University professor Karrin Vasby Anderson told AFP. “Trump hires and appoints women who he thinks will make him look good. The minute they don’t, they are gone,” she said.
“He continues to defend (Defense Secretary) Pete Hegseth, despite the fact that nearly everyone agrees that the Iran war has been a catastrophe,” Anderson said. “I think it’s telling that the men he defends most vociferously are those who promote a particular kind of sexist MAGA masculinity. It’s clear that Trump feels comfortable surrounding himself with that type of man.” Trump has stood by men in his administration despite national outcry against chief of staff Stephen Miller’s vocal support for the violent immigration policy and the taint of scandal dogging FBI Director Kash Patel over allegations of a taxpayer-funded slush fund to reward loyalists and other missteps.
– Male successors –
The only man not spared was Mike Waltz, who was removed from his post as national security adviser in May 2025 after he inadvertently added a journalist to a leadership discussion group where they chatted about US strikes in Yemen. But Waltz rebounded quickly and was appointed to be ambassador to the United Nations soon after. In every case where a woman was sidelined, a man invariably replaced her. Todd Blanche took over Bondi’s role at the Justice Department after working as Trump’s personal lawyer.
And Wiles — the first woman to hold the strategic position of White House chief of staff — has just been replaced by hard-right ideologue Miller, a longtime Trump loyalist. Anderson said Wiles was a rare hire for Trump because she was recruited for her expertise. But after the Democratic blue wave’s crushing victory in the midterm elections, the Republican president may think “Stephen Miller will defend Trump better than Susie Wiles would.” Trump, however, appears to be struggling to replace one prominent female face of his presidency: Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary ever who left her post at the end of August. The president jokingly called on UFC chief Dana White to take on the role instead, but the fighting executive demurred on Monday, saying: “I do not want to be in politics.”
– Elodie SOINARD
© 2024 AFP
