--- title: James Comey Fired: Trump Breaks Silence on Axing FBI Chief description: The President said he fired Comey because he "wasn't doing a good job." canonical: https://time.com/4774102/donald-trump-james-comey-fired/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-10T16:01:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:51:01.857Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Breaks His Silence on Comey Firing og:description: "He wasn't doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job" og:url: https://time.com/4774102/donald-trump-james-comey-fired/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94eba0001632ce91/6988ccc397cdff86106b0a35/trump6.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump speaks at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Breaks His Silence on Comey Firing twitter:description: "He wasn't doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94eba0001632ce91/6988ccc397cdff86106b0a35/trump6.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Breaks Silence on Comey Firing: 'He Wasn't Doing a Good Job'  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 10, 2017 4:01 PM UTC  President Trump speaks to reporters after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House in Washington on May 10, 2017. President Trump speaks to reporters after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House in Washington on May 10, 2017.Kevin Lamarque—Reuters  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 10, 2017 4:01 PM UTC President Trump broke his silence Wednesday on his decision to terminate FBI Director James Comey, saying he made the decision because he wasn’t performing well. “He wasn’t doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Trump did not respond when asked if the new FBI Director would lead the investigation into Russian meddling in the election. Trump spoke with the media after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The meeting, which was publicly announced after Comey was fired, drew heightened scrutiny amidst complaints that Trump had terminated the head of the bureau that was investigating his campaign associate’s possible ties with Russia. But Trump said the decision to fire Comey had no affect on this meeting. Trump’s meeting with Lavrov was closed to the press. The only photos from the meeting are handouts from the Russian government. Trump also met with Henry Kissinger, who served as Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations. The meeting with Kissinger was not on the President’s public schedule, and comes at a time when many pundits and Democrats are comparing the decision to fire Comey with [Richard Nixon’s 1973 firing ](http://time.com/4773388/donald-trump-james-comey-fired-richard-nixon-saturday-night-massacre/)of Archibald Cox, a special prosecutor who was investigating the burglary in the Watergate scandal. Trump said he and Kissinger discussed Russia and other matters, which he declined to specify. James Comey Fired: Trump Breaks Silence on Axing FBI Chief ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4774102/donald-trump-james-comey-fired/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4774102/donald-trump-james-comey-fired/"},"headline":"President Trump Breaks Silence on Comey Firing: 'He Wasn't Doing a Good Job'","datePublished":"2017-05-10T16:01:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:51:01.857Z","description":"\"He wasn't doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job\"","url":"https://time.com/4774102/donald-trump-james-comey-fired/","keywords":["White House","James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94eba0001632ce91/6988ccc397cdff86106b0a35/trump6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94eba0001632ce91/6988ccc397cdff86106b0a35/trump6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump speaks at the White House in Washington","caption":"Trump speaks at the White House in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4774102/donald-trump-james-comey-fired/","name":"President Trump Breaks Silence on Comey Firing: 'He Wasn't Doing a Good Job'"}}]}] ```