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For nearly two decades, Donald Trump traded on the phrase, “you’re fired.”
That sentiment is so far nowhere to be found in his White House.
This year has already brought negative headlines that, during the president’s first term, could easily have led to sackings — from Elon Musk paring back Social Security to a stock market that dipped into correction territory to the ongoing drama known as Signalgate.
But the heads aren’t rolling in his administration. Trump has, his first term adviser Steve Bannon said, learned the lesson of a term during which the president dismissed personnel quickly and often for controversies or missteps (including Bannon himself, famously fired in 2017). This time, Trump doesn’t want to be seen as giving in to opponents.
“The lessons of Mike Flynn are resonating in this,” Bannon told Semafor in describing what he called the president’s “no scalps policy.” Flynn, Trump’s initial first-term national security adviser, got pushed out after just 23 days for giving “incomplete information” to then-Vice President Mike Pence about calls he made to Russia’s ambassador.
Now Mike Waltz, Trump’s first second-term pick for national security adviser, is facing harsh scrutiny inside and outside the White House for adding a journalist to a Signal conversation where sensitive military information was shared. Some conservatives are openly suggesting Waltz play the fall guy, but Trump is resisting making a move that some of his aides suspect would simply fuel outside criticism.
If Trump’s opponents “taste blood in the water, it’s just a feeding frenzy,” one administration official said, and the administration is “not even interested” in setting that off.
It’s a demonstration of what Bannon called the Trump White House’s “fight club mentality.” It also suggests that Trump doesn’t need accountability from Waltz or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared sensitive military information in the group chat — even though the president has attacked former President Joe Biden for not axing people who made mistakes.
During last year’s lone debate with Biden, Trump cited his lack of firings after the deadly US withdrawal from Afghanistan to marvel that Biden “doesn’t fire people.”
Lately, however, there’s an acknowledgment inside the administration that the more Democrats and Trump opponents call for someone’s firing, the more likely he is to resist doing just that.
And it just so happens Democrats are clamoring for Hegseth, Waltz and others to face consequences for participating in the group chat, where Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was present.
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The White House sees Signalgate as its first real crisis of a second term during which it has dominated the public narrative, even as it shrugs off any repercussions. Some Republicans would like to see more accountability.
“It’s the first strike. It seems like a big one. It could have been a small one,’” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who is concerned about national security information being shared on Signal. “They should have just owned it. I think it became a bigger deal the longer they didn’t own it.”
Trump’s showing no signs of conceding on that front, even as anxiety over the special election to fill Waltz’s seat helped force UN ambassador pick Elise Stefanik to return to Congress. The president told reporters this week that Waltz is “doing his best” and doesn’t need to apologize.
Asked whether Hegseth should reconsider his position amid the flap, Trump called it “a witch hunt” and said he “had nothing to do with it.”
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who met personally with Trump after the election, told Semafor that he’s “not surprised.”
“I mean, they’ve had the same MO: never apologize, never acknowledge and just move on,” Fetterman said. “The only surprise would be if they had any heads roll.”
He suggested that Trump might be right to assume Washington will move on: “I think history has taught them, eventually we’re all going to move past that and we’re going to talk about something different.”
There’s another reason why this administration is more willing to stand by its people. The first time Trump won, Trump and his team were caught off-guard. That forced Trump, then new to Washington, to rely more heavily on those who had been in DC for years.
But this time, Trump isn’t being told what to do. He’s also surrounded by people who have either learned from his tumultuous first term or, like chief of staff Susie Wiles, are newer to his circle and notoriously operate with a bias against overreaction. They’re more focused on picking loyalists to serve.
Trump, one person close to him said, “has more confidence in every hire” because of this.
Shelby and Burgess’ View
It’s still very early in Trump’s second term. As his approval rating falls below 50% and his team faces an array of challenges, it’s possible that the president will revert back to his old ways. After all, less than a year into his first term he had canned his chief of staff, health secretary, Flynn, and several other officials.
Trump allies are hoping his new mentality is here to stay, especially as Democrats continue struggling to coalesce around their own attack strategy. The last thing that Trump’s aides and allies want is to give their opponents a victory.
What’s more, the Republican Party is now almost fully reshaped in his image, which means he has few internal critics to lob more bruising criticism of his hires. There are still a few around.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Semafor on Thursday that if Hegseth acknowledged that “it was wrong to put the mission data on the unclassified application and took responsibility, the issue would lose steam rather quickly. But denying it was wrong makes it worse.”
Room for Disagreement
Some of Trump’s allies on the Hill have not shown much concern about the Signal group chat, and they don’t mind that the president isn’t worried either.
“You don’t lose your job, a high-level job like that, over that,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. “You got to give them a little leeway. It’s a little unusual what happened. It’s the president’s call all the way.”
Notable
- While Trump hasn’t been quick to fire his own people, the same can’t be said for government workers: His administration has fired thousands of workers amid its push to shrink the size of government, though the efforts are being met with legal pushback, as CNN reported.
- Trump is continuing to keep an eye on the fallout from Signalgate, and the topic remains a “hot potato” internally, CBS News reported.
Kadia Goba contributed reporting.