The departures of James Braid and Karoline Leavitt remove two trusted operators just as the White House approaches a difficult post-midterm phase. But the exits do not amount to a collapse: some roles already have successors, and others remain open as Trump reshapes his team.
President Donald Trump is heading toward the 2026 midterms with several important personnel changes underway across the White House and Justice Department, including departures from the offices that manage congressional relations, press strategy and legal work.
The timing is politically sensitive. Republicans still control both chambers of Congress, but their House majority is thin and a number of Senate contests have become competitive. A Democratic House would gain committee gavels and subpoena power, while the administration is also dealing with an unresolved conflict with Iran and the long transition toward the 2028 Republican presidential race.
Departures cluster before the midterms
White House legislative affairs director James Braid is set to leave in September after helping the administration shepherd major legislation, nominations and funding fights through Congress. Trump publicly confirmed the departure on Aug. 20 and praised Braid’s work. The president did not name a replacement.
Braid’s exit followed Leavitt’s announcement that she would step down as White House press secretary at the end of August. Leavitt said the demands of the job were no longer compatible with the time and attention she wanted to give her two young children after the birth of her second child.
Her departure is not a break with Trump’s political operation. Leavitt said she plans to return to MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC where she previously worked, and Trump has said she will remain an outside adviser. As of Aug. 23, he had publicly mentioned CNN commentator Scott Jennings and longtime aide Margo Martin as possible replacements but had not announced a final choice.
The personnel changes extend beyond the communications and legislative shops. White House counsel David Warrington is leaving for the private sector, although that transition is more settled: Trump has named staff secretary Will Scharf to succeed him as White House counsel beginning Sept. 1.
Braid leaves a key Hill bridge
The legislative affairs director is not usually one of the most visible people in a White House, but the office becomes especially important when a president’s party has little room for defections. Braid served as the administration’s day-to-day bridge to lawmakers and had deep relationships on Capitol Hill, including from his earlier work for then-Sen. JD Vance.
Roll Call reported that Braid helped the White House navigate Trump’s large 2025 tax-and-spending package, Cabinet confirmations and two government shutdowns. His successor will inherit a compressed pre-election session, with government funding and other unfinished legislative priorities competing for attention.
That makes the vacancy operationally significant even if staff turnover itself is normal. A new legislative director must quickly learn which members can be moved, which promises have already been made and where the administration has leverage. Those relationships can be harder to replace than the formal authority attached to the title.
There is also an important factual distinction in the reporting about Braid’s departure date. Trump has said only that Braid will leave in September, and Roll Call reported that the White House had not publicly fixed his final day. POLITICO, citing a person familiar with his plans, reported Sept. 30. The exact date therefore remains reported rather than formally announced.
Leavitt shifts outside the West Wing
Leavitt’s exit has a different effect because the press secretary is both an internal strategist and the administration’s most recognizable daily messenger. Trump relied on her not only to brief reporters but also to defend his agenda on television and across newer media platforms favored by the White House.
At 28, Leavitt became the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history. Her tenure also reflected Trump’s broader approach to presidential communications: fewer traditional briefings than some predecessors, more direct presidential engagement with reporters, and greater access for conservative and digital outlets.
The replacement search matters because the job is unusually tied to the president’s personal style. Trump has long regarded himself as his own most important communicator, meaning a press secretary must be able to amplify his message without becoming a competing center of attention. Familiarity, loyalty and television skill can matter as much as mastery of the briefing room.
For now, Leavitt’s move to MAGA Inc. suggests continuity rather than disappearance. She is leaving a government post with round-the-clock demands but remaining connected to the political organization that will be heavily involved in the midterms and, eventually, the fight over the 2028 Republican nomination.
The legal bench is changing too
The legal turnover needs to be separated into different institutions. Warrington is a White House official, and his replacement, Scharf, has already been selected. Ed Martin, by contrast, has been serving as U.S. pardon attorney at the Justice Department, not as a member of the White House counsel’s office.
Trump announced Friday that Martin would leave the Justice Department to work in the private sector on election-related legal fights involving the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. The Associated Press reported that Martin had held several roles during Trump’s second term, including pardon attorney, after an earlier stint as interim U.S. attorney in Washington.
Those moves matter because legal staffing is likely to become more important if Congress changes hands. The White House counsel’s office handles legal questions surrounding presidential actions, congressional demands and executive privilege, while the Justice Department represents the federal government in a wide range of disputes.
Scharf therefore arrives with a clear assignment date and no immediate vacancy in the counsel’s office once the handoff occurs. That makes the legal transition different from the open searches for Braid’s and Leavitt’s successors.
Democratic oversight is possible, not guaranteed
The strongest reason the departures are attracting attention is the possibility that Democrats could win the House in November. Republicans currently hold 218 seats to 213 for Democrats after Aisha Wahab won an Aug. 18 California special election, leaving the majority exceptionally narrow.
A change in control would give Democrats the power to chair House committees, set hearing agendas and issue subpoenas under committee rules. Reuters reported earlier this month that Democratic lawmakers and staff are preparing possible investigations involving Trump-linked financial interests, administration donors, federal contracts and companies with ties to the president or his government.
That does not mean a Democratic House could simply obtain every document it demands. Congressional oversight disputes can trigger negotiations, privilege claims and litigation. On Aug. 10, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion saying executive privilege can extend to confidential communications between the president and private advisers when they concern official presidential decision-making.
The opinion is the executive branch’s legal position, not a court ruling resolving future subpoena fights. It nevertheless signals that the administration is already thinking about how it would resist or narrow some congressional demands if Democrats gain investigative power.
Turnover is rising, but context matters
The latest exits are notable partly because Trump’s second White House initially looked more stable than his first. Brookings scholar Kathryn Dunn Tenpas found that roughly 29% of Trump’s senior “A Team” positions turned over during the first year of his second term, lower than the comparable rate in 2017.
By Aug. 12, however, Brookings put second-term “A Team” turnover at 53%. The tracker counts the first departure from each influential Executive Office of the President position and excludes Cabinet secretaries from that measure, so it should not be read as saying that half of the current White House staff has just quit.
The comparison with Trump’s first term is still instructive. Brookings calculated that 92% of the first administration’s “A Team” positions experienced turnover by January 2021, with repeated changes in several high-profile jobs. The second-term operation has so far avoided that same degree of serial churn.
That is why the current moment is better described as a staffing test than an exodus that has already crippled the presidency. Braid and Leavitt are consequential departures, but Leavitt is remaining politically aligned with Trump, Warrington has a named successor, and presidential administrations commonly experience significant turnover as aides reassess their plans around election cycles.
The midterms raise the stakes
What makes these changes more consequential is what the next staff will face. Republicans hold a 53-seat Senate majority, but the 2026 map has become more competitive. Several traditionally Republican-held seats are now drawing serious Democratic challenges, with Texas and Iowa among the races rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report.
The House is even more immediately precarious because the GOP margin is so small. Losing control would sharply reduce Trump’s ability to rely on party leaders to move legislation through both chambers and would give Democrats far greater authority to investigate his administration.
The foreign-policy environment adds another layer. The U.S.-Iran conflict that began earlier this year has not produced a durable settlement. Reuters reported on Aug. 22 that major hostilities had paused but that no peace negotiations were underway, while Iran and the United States remained at odds over sanctions and the Strait of Hormuz. On Aug. 23, Iran’s president publicly defended diplomacy as the best path out of the stalled war.
A new legislative director or press secretary would therefore be stepping into jobs that combine campaign-year politics with the possibility of divided government and an unresolved international crisis. That is a demanding mix even for experienced Washington hands.
What the next team inherits
The departures do not prove that senior aides expect Trump’s political position to collapse. Leavitt gave a specific family reason for leaving and is moving into a pro-Trump political role. Braid has been widely reported as heading toward the private sector. Warrington’s transition is structured, with Scharf already designated to replace him.
Still, personnel choices can shape how effectively a presidency absorbs pressure. Legislative affairs determines how the White House works Congress. The press shop manages public explanations when policy, politics and crisis collide. The counsel’s office helps define the administration’s response when oversight turns into a legal confrontation.
The next few weeks will show whether Trump fills the open jobs with established insiders who can preserve continuity or brings in new figures who must build trust under election-year pressure. That choice could matter more after Nov. 3, when voters determine whether Republicans retain the congressional majorities that have helped carry much of Trump’s second-term agenda.
For now, the clearest conclusion is narrower than the “writing on the wall” metaphor suggests. Trump is not facing an empty West Wing, but he is losing several experienced and trusted operatives at nearly the same time. Their replacements will inherit a presidency moving from its legislative opening phase into a more defensive, uncertain and potentially adversarial one.
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