Susie Wiles is the latest high-profile woman to leave the White House this year, as President Donald Trump announced on Nov. 6 that she would be moving to a role at the Trump political operation.
Wiles served as White House chief of staff, the first woman in the top White House post, and is seen as one of the most powerful individuals in the second Trump administration. Two sources close to the administration told USA TODAY that Wiles is being blamed for the GOP’s midterm catastrophe. In September, Wiles also announced that she was cancer free, months after a diagnosis.
She is being replaced by Stephen Miller, previously the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
Miller has been a prime architect of some of the Trump administration's most controversial policies, including crackdowns on immigration.
At the start of his second term, Trump appointed women to eight of the 23 Cabinet or Cabinet-level executive positions in the White House, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
"I'm also thrilled to say that we have more women in our cabinet than any Republican president in the history of our country," Trump touted in March 2025 at a Women's History Month event.
Now that list is down to three remaining leading women: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Administrator of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler.
For a decade now, controversial comments by Trump and lawsuits have made critics question his attitude toward women. Trump continues to defend against the criticism, and he describes himself as a supporter of women. In a March 2026 Women's History Month event, he said that his administration "is working every single day to make America better, safer and more prosperous for women."
The other women who left the Trump administration
The women who led the departments of Justice, Labor and Homeland Security, and U.S. intelligence community, were all fired or left their posts in 2026, all to be replaced by men.
In March, Trump fired then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. The move came shortly after lawmakers on Capitol Hill grilled her about massive department spending, including a series of commercials that prominently featured Noem herself. Before that, she became deeply unpopular during Immigrations and Customs Enforcements crackdowns that she oversaw during the Minneapolis federal officer shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was ousted in April after criticism of her handling of the Epstein files and thwarted investigations into Trump's perceived enemies.
Later in April, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer left her role. The announcement from the White House said she would take a private sector job, but it also followed January reporting from The New York Times that she was under investigation for misusing funds to have a relationship with a subordinate, which the Labor Department denied and the White House called baseless.
Then, in May, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced hat she was stepping down from her post, citing her husband being diagnosed with a rare bone cancer.
While not in a Cabinet-level position, Karoline Leavitt left her role as press secretary in August, shortly after the birth of her second child, saying that she wanted to spend more time with her family. Leavitt remains a confidant of the president and appeared with him on the midterm campaign trail.
Also last month, Trump asked Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to leave her role, after reports surfaced about concerning conduct about taking money from donors in exchange for access to senior administration officials, allegations which she denied.
Contributing: Joey Garrison and Zac Anderson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wiles is the latest high-profile woman to leave Trump administration
