All The Rats Are Leaving Donald Trump’s Sinking Ship

The Trump train was moving at breakneck speed, and then midterms came, and all that MAGA movement ran into a blue brick wall.

Much like folks who’ve sat at your VIP table and ordered drinks on your tab, the bill has come and everyone’s scattered, and there is nothing more entertaining than watching people discover that the political movement they’ve been kiki-ing with the whole time might actually have consequences.

And Donald Trump, who has spent the better part of two years surrounding himself with people willing to do just about anything to satisfy his personal grievances, is finding out that a whole lot of those people suddenly have somewhere else to be.

Democrats didn’t just win a couple of elections Tuesday; they politically beat the brakes off the Republican Party, stealing both the House and the Senate. And that fallout has been so glorious that the White House’s revolving door is spinning faster than Trump’s spokesperson trying to explain why another staffer is no longer employed.  

The exits keep coming, and some of the most interesting departures are happening at the Department of Justice.

Let’s start with the latest developments.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is leaving her position after Trump announced Friday that Big Baby Hitler, aka Stephen Miller, would replace her. 

Wiles, the first woman to hold the powerful position, will reportedly move over to Trump’s political operation. So, technically, she isn’t disappearing from Trump’s orbit. She’s just losing one of the most powerful jobs in Washington.

Then there’s Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who led the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which is to say she worked tirelessly to destroy Civil Rights. Dhillon resigned Thursday, just days after Democrats’ electoral victory. During her tenure, Dhillon helped lead the administration’s assault on diversity initiatives, pursued its ideological agenda through the department and participated in efforts to obtain voter registration information from states.

And she’s not the only one.

On Friday, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the departures of two more senior Justice Department officials:

John Eisenberg: The head of the DOJ’s National Security Division, responsible for overseeing matters involving national security, terrorism and espionage.

Jason Reding Quiñones: The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who oversaw the administration’s controversial so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation targeting former intelligence and law enforcement officials accused of working against Trump.

Quiñones’ departure is particularly interesting considering the investigation was designed to pursue Trump’s political enemies. The probe was a mess from the onset, struggling with staffing departures, delays, and questions about whether it could produce the kind of criminal charges Trump and his allies wanted.

And there’s more DOJ baggage. Prosecutor Joseph diGenova left the investigation in September amid disagreements over its direction and pace. Election denier Kurt Olsen also bounced from the department after working on the same investigation, although his departure was followed by some confusion over whether he intended to leave the DOJ entirely.

Counselor to the attorney general Henry Whitaker has also indicated plans to leave.

In other words, the Justice Department’s Trump revenge tour is experiencing a serious personnel problem.

But the departures extend well beyond the DOJ.

The administration has already lost several prominent figures during Trump’s second term, including:

• Pam Bondi: Fired as attorney general in April after Trump became annoyed with her handling of the Epstein files. 
• Kristi Noem: Fired as homeland security secretary in March following controversy surrounding immigration enforcement operations and questions about a $220 million advertising contract.
• Lori Chavez-DeRemer: Departed as labor secretary in April amid a misconduct investigation and allegations involving her department.
• Tulsi Gabbard: Resigned as director of national intelligence in May, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis, amid reports that she had been increasingly sidelined by the administration.
• Karoline Leavitt: Left her position as White House press secretary in August, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.
• Katie Zacharia: Lasted approximately one week as Leavitt’s replacement before questions about her law degree.
• Kimberly Guilfoyle: Was asked to step down as ambassador to Greece following reports that she was asking Trump donors for money.
• Mike Waltz: Was removed as national security adviser following the embarrassing Signal group chat scandal and reassigned as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
• Joe Kent: Resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center over Trump’s war in Iran.
• Susan Monarez: Was fired as CDC director after refusing, according to her congressional testimony, to comply with demands from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• Daniel Driscoll: Resigned as Army secretary following reported disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over military leadership.

And that’s before getting into the military leadership purge, the DOGE exodus and the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who have been pushed out during Trump’s tenure. People leave presidential administrations all the time. What’s remarkable about this presidential mass exodus is the timing, the sheer number of departures and the particular people involved.

For two years, Trump officials have operated as if congressional oversight, institutional accountability and the possibility of political consequences were inconveniences that applied to everybody except them.

The Justice Department was transformed into an execution arm of the government to settle the president’s grievances. Civil rights protections have been attacked. Federal agencies have been weaponized against perceived enemies. And the administration has repeatedly treated the machinery of government as though it were another Trump-owned bankrupt business.

Now Democrats are preparing to take control of Congress, and suddenly there are a whole lot of people who might prefer to spend more time with their families, pursue opportunities in the private sector, or explore other professional interests.

How convenient. 

The incoming Democratic flamethrowers have already warned that they are coming to burn down their master’s house. House Oversight Democrats have promised scrutiny, and the Justice Department’s conduct is certain to attract attention from congressional investigators.

Perhaps some of these departures are unrelated to the election, but I highly doubt it. Perhaps some people genuinely have personal reasons for leaving, surrrrreeeee. For two years, these rats ran reckless with the highest ranks of government behind them. And now that the tides have changed, they want off the ship because the prospect of answering questions under oath, turning over documents, and facing congressional subpoenas can make any appointee want to change career trajectory.

And here’s the thing: The blue wave isn’t even fully operational yet. Democrats won’t formally take control of Congress until January.

Imagine what happens when they actually get there.

Trump spent years convincing his supporters that elections have consequences. He just didn’t seem to understand that those consequences might eventually apply to him, too.

The rats are leaving the ship. The question is whether anybody plans to stick around long enough to explain what they did while they were aboard.

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