Prominent member of Donald Trump administration resigns, amid talk of even higher profile resignations
So many prominent members of Donald Trump’s administration have resigned, either by scandal or by protest, it’s become difficult to recite them all from memory. No modern presidency has ever seen this kind of chaos, listlessness, and controversy. Now yet another prominent member of the Trump administration has resigned – and this comes amid a backdrop of buzz about multiple possible resignations that would be even higher profile in nature.
The latest departure is Interior Department executive Joel Clement, which doesn’t come as a surprise. The Trump administration has been punishing Clement since he spoke out about the legitimacy of climate change. He then spoke out about the retaliation against him, which made him into a polarizing public figure. According to the Washington Post, he’s now resigned entirely (link), rather than continuing to fight for his job from within. But two much more high profile members of the Trump administration, both of them household names, may also be on their way out the door.
It’s been exposed that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Donald Trump a “f*cking moron” and had to be talked out of resigning (link). This took place in June and then privately blew over. Now that it’s belatedly leaking out publicly, it’s becoming a fresh scandal anew – and could result in Tillerson’s departure. And as we reported earlier, an incident involving Air Force One has led to reports that Chief of Staff John Kelly may also be imminently on his way out (link). Meanwhile the list of high profile departures continues to get longer.
Every presidential administration has some degree of turnover over the years, and not all of it is scandalous. However, there has never been anything like the number of controversial and scandalous high profile departures from Donald Trump’s flailing White House. Joel Clement now joins Michael Flynn, Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci, Carl Icahn, Sebastian Gorka, Tom Price, Steve Bannon, and dozens of others who have already exited in controversy in less than nine months.
