Five senior officials in the Trump administration have announced or been reported as leaving their posts in a roughly two-week span in August 2026: press secretary Karoline Leavitt, White House counsel David Warrington, deputy national security adviser Andy Baker, senior policy aide Emily Underwood, and legislative affairs director James Braid. Publicly reported reasons or next steps include family time and moves to the private sector, and the exits are staggered from late August through the end of September. Separate reporting has documented a wave of departures among Treasury Department appointees.
Key facts
- Karoline Leavitt, press secretary — leaving by the end of August 2026
- David Warrington, White House counsel — leaving around Sept. 1, 2026
- Andy Baker, deputy national security adviser — expected to leave “in the coming weeks,” per reporting from Aug. 14, 2026
- Emily Underwood, senior policy aide — leaving, per reporting from Aug. 18-20, 2026
- James Braid, legislative affairs director — leaving in September 2026
Karoline Leavitt is stepping down at the end of August
President Trump announced on Aug. 12, 2026, that Leavitt will leave her role as White House press secretary by the end of the month. Leavitt said the decision was her own: she wants more time with her family, including a daughter born May 1, 2026, saying she cannot be “the best mom my two young children deserve” while carrying the demands of the job. Trump said he “totally understand[s] and respect[s]” her decision. She is expected to remain a top outside adviser to Trump on the midterm elections and to return to work for the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc.
As of Aug. 24, 2026, no permanent successor has been named. CNN has reported that Scott Jennings is an early favorite for the job, while the White House says no decision has been made; principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly and several other names have also been floated without confirmation.
Three other West Wing exits, with different reported next steps
David Warrington
White House counsel David Warrington will step down effective around Sept. 1, 2026. Trump has said only that Warrington is “going on to the Private Sector,” without giving a further reason; he will be succeeded by current White House staff secretary Will Scharf. Warrington, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney and general counsel for the 2024 campaign, was credited by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with helping secure “24 Supreme Court victories and the confirmation of 54 judges” during his tenure.
Andy Baker
Deputy national security adviser Andy Baker will also be gone within weeks: reporting that surfaced Aug. 14, 2026 says he’s expected to leave the administration soon. Baker, a longtime foreign-policy aide to Vice President JD Vance, was part of the U.S. delegation for the first direct U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan earlier this year. He has a young family and reportedly wanted more time at home after staying on longer than planned to help with earlier staff transitions; Vance publicly praised his service. Baker is expected to move to the private sector, reportedly to consulting firm America Global Strategies, co-founded by former national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
Emily Underwood
Emily Underwood is leaving too. A deputy to Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and a senior policy strategist who worked on federal policy coordination and nuclear-energy research, her departure emerged in reporting between Aug. 18 and 20, 2026. She is reported to be moving into the private sector. No on-the-record reason for her departure has been reported.
Legislative affairs director James Braid departs in September 2026
James Braid, the White House’s director of legislative affairs and its top congressional liaison, will leave the administration in September 2026, after about 19 months in the role. Braid, who worked closely with then-Sen. JD Vance before Vance became vice president, is credited by allies with helping steer two bills through Congress: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and the “Genius Act.” Allies also credit him with defeating War Powers resolutions in Congress and helping speed the confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet. He is expected to move to the private sector.
No permanent successor had been named as of Aug. 24, 2026. Deputy Legislative Affairs Director Alex Meyer has been named acting director to handle near-term negotiations, including an upcoming stopgap funding bill, while deputies Jeff Freeland and Katie Bailey and Domestic Policy Council director Vince Haley have been floated as possible candidates for the permanent job. Braid’s departure lands as the White House heads into a difficult pre-midterms legislative stretch with a narrow congressional majority.
A separate wave of exits at the Treasury Department
Alongside the White House departures, seven of Trump’s 16 Senate-confirmed Treasury Department appointees — about 44% — have resigned or been pushed out since the start of his second term, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan watchdog group, as reported by NOTUS. That turnover rate is reported to be far higher than in recent administrations at the same point in their terms. Under the Obama and Biden administrations, zero Senate-confirmed Treasury appointees had departed by this point; under the Bush administration and Trump’s first term, two had — meaning the seven departures so far are more than three times that higher two-person benchmark.
Several of the Treasury exits are tied to internal disputes: reporting says at least four of the seven departed after objecting to White House pressure to stretch or violate tax law, including resistance to using IRS (Internal Revenue Service) taxpayer data for immigration enforcement and to a large fund that critics have called a political “anti-weaponization” fund. The New Republic reports that IRS Commissioner Billy Long was pushed out after refusing to hand over taxpayer records to the Department of Homeland Security, and that Treasury General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned within hours of the fund being unveiled.
What isn’t part of this
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is not among the officials leaving. A June 2026 report, citing anonymous sources, claimed she was preparing to resign after the midterms, reportedly over opposition to Bill Pulte’s promotion to acting Director of National Intelligence and frustration with what the report called “Cabinet chaos.” Wiles publicly denied it at the time, calling the report “Friday fiction” and saying, “I am not going anywhere.” No reporting connects her to this round of departures.
Is there a pattern behind the five departures?
The available reporting describes different reasons or next steps for the five departures: family time for Leavitt, private-sector moves for Warrington, Baker and Braid, and a reported private-sector move for Underwood; it does not establish an on-the-record motive for every departure. That is distinct from the Treasury Department exits described above, where several departing officials reportedly left over policy disputes with the White House rather than personal circumstances.
Some outlets have characterized the broader pattern of White House exits as a sign of turmoil inside the West Wing, and multiple outlets, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Trump has grown more difficult to work with in recent months, linking that to staff burnout. No on-the-record source has tied any of the five departures directly to that dynamic, and the administration and its allies have pushed back on the turmoil characterization.
Beyond the White House and Treasury figures already cited, one more turnover number has been tracked separately: Brookings’ tracker of second-term staff turnover, last updated Aug. 11, 2026, put senior Executive Office of the President staff turnover at 53% and Cabinet turnover at 20%.