The Trump administration officials who have resigned
Several Trump administration officials have announced that they are resigning after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, temporarily disrupting Congress as it was certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The officials included those in prominent positions in the White House, and staff members who have been working in the Trump administration since the beginning of the president’s term in 2017. The moves are being made with less than two weeks remaining in Trump’s term.
Here is a list of the administration officials who have resigned as of late Thursday.
●Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has become the second Cabinet secretary to resign a day after the pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In a resignation letter, DeVos blamed Trump for inflaming tensions in the violent assault. She says, “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”
●Elaine Chao: The transportation secretary announced her resignation earlier Thursday on Twitter and was the first Cabinet member to do so. The unrest at the Capitol, she wrote, “deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside.” Chao, whose resignation is effective Monday, is married to Sen.
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader.
●MickMulvaney:
Trump’s former acting chief of staff resigned as special envoy to Northern Ireland on Wednesday night, saying he “can’t stay” after watching the president encourage the mob that overtook the Capitol complex. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday morning, Mulvaney said he called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday night and told him: “I can’t do it. I can’t stay.”
Mulvaney praised administration officials who defended Vice President Mike Pence, who oversaw the tallying of the votes that certified Biden’s victory despite pressure from Trump. Mulvaney said he anticipated that there would be more resignations. “Those who choose to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mulvaney, who was named acting chief of staff in 2018, wrote on Twitter: “The President’s tweet is not enough. He can stop this now and needs to do exactly that. Tell these folks to go home.”
●Matthew Pottinger:
He has been Trump’s deputy national security adviser since 2019. He was formerly the administration’s Asia director on the National Security Council and was known for his on-theground experience in China, where he advised Trump during his meeting with President Xi Jinping in 2017.
John Costello: Costello, one of the country’s most senior cybersecurity officials, resigned Wednesday, telling associates that the violence on Capitol Hill was his “breaking point” and, he hoped, “a wake-up call.”
●Tyler Goodspeed: The acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers resigned Thursday, citing Trump’s incitement of the mob that stormed the Capitol. “The events of yesterday made my position no longer tenable,” he said in an interview, after informing the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, of his decision.
●Stephanie Grisham: The former White House press secretary who served as chief of staff to Melania Trump, the first lady, submitted her resignation Wednesday after the violence at the Capitol. She had worked for the Trumps since the 2016 campaign and was one of their longest-serving aides.
●Rickie Niceta: Melania Trump chose Niceta, a former Washington event planner who helped coordinate Donald Trump’s inaugural celebrations, as her social secretary in 2017. Niceta has said she was resigning, according to an administration official familiar with her plans who was not authorized to speak publicly.
●Sarah Matthews: Matthews, a deputy White House press secretary, submitted her resignation Wednesday, saying in a statement that she was “deeply disturbed by what I saw today.”