BACK STORY
What his many departing aides had to say of Trump
Criticisms: None.
Criticisms: In Bob Woodward’s book “Fear,” Porter is quoted as saying, “A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren’t such good ideas.”
Criticisms: None. Hicks now works for Fox.
Criticisms: Cohn is also quoted in “Fear.”
“It’s not what we did for the country,” he reportedly said. “It’s what we saved him from doing.” In another anecdote, Cohn is described as removing a document from Trump’s desk to prevent the president from signing it.
Criticisms: It was challenging to “go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe,’ ” Tillerson said in an interview. He also said Trump had to be told when proposed actions were potentially illegal.
Criticisms: McCabe called Trump’s attacks on him “unhinged.” Working at the FBI, he said, “is the best job you will ever have. Even if a president decides to attack you and your family.”
Criticisms: Prior to leaving the White House, McMaster was reported to have said that Trump was a “dope” who was no smarter than a kindergartner.
Criticisms: Shulkin says he butted heads with advocates for VA privatization who saw him “as an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed.”
Criticisms: None. He is currently employed by ABC News. It’s not clear whether he signed a nondisclosure agreement when joining the White House.
Criticisms: None. In a lengthy interview with CBS, Schadlow was complimentary about Trump’s involvement in the security team’s processes.
Criticisms: “Bob Mueller is an American hero in my view,” Cobb said of the Russia investigation special counsel in an interview in October. “I don’t believe this is a witch hunt.”
Criticisms: None.
Criticisms: None. Pruitt’s departure followed a series of questions about his behavior while leading the EPA.
Criticisms: None. Short is now a CNN contributor. He signed a nondisclosure agreement while working with the Trump campaign, but says he did not sign one at the White House. (The campaign agreement was expansive in its terms.)
Criticisms: People close to McGahn told CNN that in his last meeting with Trump, the president blamed him for Mueller’s appointment.
Criticisms: None.
Criticisms: Haley described to NBC News how she leveraged Trump’s personality: “I got the job done by being truthful but also by letting him be unpredictable and not showing our cards.”
Criticisms: None. Despite ongoing criticism from Trump that ultimately led to his ouster, Sessions told an audience last month that he “enjoy[ed] the honor and appreciate[d] the president allowing [him] to serve almost two years in one of the greatest jobs in the world.”
Criticisms: None.
Criticisms: Working as chief of staff was a “bone-crushing hard job,” Kelly said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. He said Trump never asked him to do anything illegal “because we wouldn’t have.”
Criticisms: None. Ayers did, however, decline to step up as Trump’s chief of staff, a job the president had made very clear he hoped Ayers would accept.
Criticisms: None.
Criticisms: “Our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” he added, remarking that he was leaving because Trump had “the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with [his] on these and other subjects.”