President Donald Trump teased that there will be more firings in his inner circle after he ousted his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Friday.
Trump, 80, sat down with 60 Minutes yesterday, just hours before he would announce Wiles’ departure and replace her with Stephen Miller.
‘I do,’ the Republican replied after journalist Ross Douthat asked him if he expected to let anyone go after his party suffered massive losses in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
The Democrats took hold of both the House and Senate, and managed to flip deep red Texas by electing Gina Hinojosa as governor and James Talarico for the Senate.
‘I love my cabinet, I think they’re good,’ the president continued. ‘But I’ll be doing maybe a few changes. I don’t want to mention who.’
Douthat asked if controversial Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would be among them. Trump seemed to suggest Hegseth was safe for now.
‘I do,’ Trump said when asked if he had confidence in Hegseth.
‘Look, we’ve won two wars. We’ve won Venezuela and taken out billions and billions and billions of dollars already, and we will be taking out many billions of dollars… We won that war in less than one hour.’
President Donald Trump, 80, teased there will be more firings in his inner circle just hours before he let go of Susie Wiles
He announced Wiles departure on Friday. Sources told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the rest of Trump’s cabinet is in a ‘knives out’ environment
Sources told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the rest of Trump’s cabinet is in a ‘knives out’ environment.
‘It’s hard to overstate, really just how factionalized that environment has become in the last several days alone,’ Collins said.
‘Aides that’ve I spoken with have described a workplace that is filled with tension and infighting, likening it to the knives-out days of the president’s first term.’
Sources told Collins that Wiles’ departure ‘will only accelerate the shift in the balance of power that is underway right now.’
Trump reportedly blames Wiles for the Republican Party’s demise in the midterms, CNN’s sources said.
However, Trump told reporters on Friday it was ‘not because of the election.’
Wiles was replaced by longterm aide Stephen Miller, who was seen getting on Air Force One with Trump.
‘I am pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen Miller, the current Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration, and one of my most trusted advisors, will become the Chief of Staff starting Monday, November 9, 2026,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump seemed to allude that controversial Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was safe for now
Wiles joins the list of cabinet members Trump has ousted, including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi
‘Susie Wiles, who has done an outstanding job, will be moving over to the Trump Political Operation. I want to thank her for her service as Chief of Staff — She has done a great job!’
The margins of the left’s victory earlier this week were so large that it may end up keeping Republicans out of the congressional majority for the better part of the next decade – a tough pill to swallow for many on the right who have called for Trump to make changes.
Although the sudden switch was shocking, the Daily Mail had reported in June that Wiles was quietly prepping an exit plan for after the midterms. At the time, the White House had denied it.
Pressed on the shake-up Friday afternoon, Trump told reporters: ‘I wanted to make a change. I think Susie’s done a very good job, great job, but… we gotta make moves. Sometimes in life, you have to make moves.’
His account cuts against that of a senior White House official, who told the Daily Mail that Wiles ‘gave her resignation last night.’
While Trump says publicly that he needed to make a change, the official says that the departure was Wiles’ decision, stoking controversy over which account to believe.
Wiles joins the list of cabinet members Trump has ousted, including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump’s 60 Minutes interview will air on Sunday at 7pm on CBS.
