--- title: Trump Has Now Had More Cabinet Turnover Than Predecessors description: Donald Trump has now had more turnover in his Cabinet in his first term than any of his five immediate predecessors. canonical: https://time.com/5625699/trump-cabinet-acosta/ author: Madeleine Joung article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-12T19:27:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:58:37.115Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Has Now Had More Cabinet Turnover Than Reagan, Obama and the Two Bushes og:description: Nine secretaries have left so far og:url: https://time.com/5625699/trump-cabinet-acosta/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19312426e4bb0601/6989ffe3929fadab3cbf498a/trump-acosta.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta Resigns After Criticism of Epstein Plea Deal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Has Now Had More Cabinet Turnover Than Reagan, Obama and the Two Bushes twitter:description: Nine secretaries have left so far twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19312426e4bb0601/6989ffe3929fadab3cbf498a/trump-acosta.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Has Now Had More Cabinet Turnover Than Reagan, Obama and the Two Bushes > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Madeleine Joung](https://time.com/author/madeleine-joung/) ## Madeleine Joung Jul 12, 2019 7:27 PM UTC  Labor Secretary Alex Acosta stands with U.S. President Donald Trump while announcing his resignation to the media at the White House on July 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. Acosta has been under fire for his role in the Jeffrey Epstein plea deal over a decade ago when he was a U.S. Attorney in Florida. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta stands with U.S. President Donald Trump while announcing his resignation to the media at the White House on July 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. Acosta has been under fire for his role in the Jeffrey Epstein plea deal over a decade ago when he was a U.S. Attorney in Florida. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Madeleine Joung](https://time.com/author/madeleine-joung/) ## Madeleine Joung Jul 12, 2019 7:27 PM UTC Donald Trump has now had more turnover in his Cabinet in the first two and a half years of his presidency than any of his five immediate predecessors did in their entire first terms. According to [data collected by the Brookings Institution](https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/), the [resignation of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta](https://time.com/5625330/alexander-acosta-labor-secretary-resigns-epstein/) marks the ninth Cabinet member to leave the Trump Administration, one more than the previous high under President George H.W. Bush. The others who have left: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen as well as her predecessor, John Kelly, who left Homeland Security to become White House chief of staff and then left that job as well. The list does not include Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who reportedly has [plans to leave](https://time.com/5572897/rick-perry-energy-secretary-quit-departure/). By comparison, six Cabinet secretaries departed during Reagan’s first term, eight during H.W. Bush’s presidency, four during Clinton’s first term, two during W. Bush’s first term and three during Obama’s first term. Three of Trump’s Cabinet members left amid scandals involving misuse of government funds for personal purposes: [Price](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/health-secretary-tom-price-wasted-money-improper-travel.html), [Shulkin](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/29/597866101/fired-va-secretary-says-white-house-muzzled-him) and [Zinke.](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/17/zinkes-exit-wont-end-scandal-probes-1036259) Others left after clashing with Trump, such as Tillerson, who reportedly called the president a [“moron.”](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/03/13/tillerson-reportedly-called-trump-moron-months-later-hes-out/419673002/) The departures also means that Trump has an unusually high number of acting Cabinet members, posts that require Senate confirmation. (Under the Vacancies Act, acting secretaries can [serve for up to 210 days](https://time.com/5566733/trump-acting-secretary-concerns-scholars/).) Trump has said that he prefers acting Cabinet members. “I like acting. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great Cabinet,” the president [said](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cabinet/trump-says-acting-cabinet-members-give-him-more-flexibility-idUSKCN1P00IG) in January, remarks he repeated in an interview with [CBS](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-face-the-nation-interview-margaret-brennan-today-super-bowl-2019-02-03/) in February. **Read More:** [_Trump Likes Acting Cabinet Members. Research Shows They May Hurt Him_](https://time.com/5566733/trump-acting-secretary-concerns-scholars/) Of the 15 Cabinet posts, Homeland Security and Defense currently have acting heads. The first acting Defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, [withdrew](https://time.com/5609295/patrick-shanahan-nomination-pulled/) his nomination in June amid reports of domestic incidents; his replacement, Mark Esper, is now undergoing an [expedited](https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/11/politics/esper-defense-secretary-confirmation-hearing/index.html) Senate confirmation process. The vacancies can have a cascade effect. Esper was formerly secretary of the Army; now, Ryan McCarthy has [assumed those duties](https://www.army.mil/leaders/usa/bio/) on an acting basis. Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general in November 2018 led to a Supreme Court challenge demanding that Whitaker be confirmed by the Senate. The Supreme Court ultimately [rejected](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-matt-whitaker-s-appointment-acting-attorney-n958341) the challenge. Additionally, the turnover for non-Cabinet senior officials in the Trump administration was [74%](https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/#cabinet) as of July 8, 2019, [according to Brookings](https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/). As the Trump Administration contends with a migrant crisis at the southern border, the Department of Homeland Security has been led by Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan since Nielsen’s departure in April. Several key immigration agencies — including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services — are currently being led by acting commissioners. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5625699/trump-cabinet-acosta/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5625699/trump-cabinet-acosta/"},"headline":"Trump Has Now Had More Cabinet Turnover Than Reagan, Obama and the Two Bushes","datePublished":"2019-07-12T19:27:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:58:37.115Z","description":"Donald Trump has now had more turnover in his Cabinet in his first term than any of his five immediate predecessors.","url":"https://time.com/5625699/trump-cabinet-acosta/","keywords":["White House","History","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19312426e4bb0601/6989ffe3929fadab3cbf498a/trump-acosta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Joung","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-joung/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19312426e4bb0601/6989ffe3929fadab3cbf498a/trump-acosta.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta Resigns After Criticism of Epstein Plea Deal","caption":"Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta Resigns After Criticism of Epstein Plea Deal","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","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/5625699/trump-cabinet-acosta/","name":"Trump Has Now Had More Cabinet Turnover Than Reagan, Obama and the Two Bushes"}}]}] ```