Fears of a post-midterms Trump rampage spur ‘brutal’ internal jockeying

By Adam Cancryn, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump still has two weeks to salvage his Republican congressional majorities and defy expectations of a midterm wipeout. But all around him, aides and allies are bracing for what happens if he fails.

Administration officials have grown increasingly convinced that steep GOP losses will trigger major personnel shakeups across the government, as Trump hunts for aides to blame and dozens of others weigh abandoning a lame duck presidency at its lowest point.

The angst has turned a White House that once prided itself on single-minded cohesion into the nerve center for a resurgence of Trump world infighting and leaking, said several administration officials, advisers and close allies, who described a toxic mix of jockeying for power and preemptive finger-pointing in the critical final days leading up to November.

“It’s more brutal than any other situation in modern times in the White House,” said one Trump ally. “You can’t trust anybody here.”

The extraordinary jousting within the administration and throughout Trump’s wider circle has broken into public view on several occasions in just the past two weeks, deepening the atmosphere of mistrust and stoking Trump’s own frustrations with the advisers around him.

Trump ousted Kimberly Guilfoyle, his ambassador to Greece and his son’s former fiancée, after a series of damaging reports prompted by a GOP donor’s disclosure that she’d asked him for $100,000 to pay off her credit card. The president also ordered his White House counsel to investigate a running dispute between two close allies, Alina Habba Mildon and Ric Grenell, over allegations that millions of dollars meant for the Kennedy Center were misallocated, according to a source familiar with the matter (Axios first reported on the investigation).

And Trump fired his new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, after just five days amid several missteps and near-universal backlash to her performance — even among close allies.

Amid those crises, some of Trump’s closest aides — chief of staff Susie Wiles and outside political advisers James Blair and Chris LaCivita — have faced unflattering coverage that sparked questions about their standing within the president’s inner circle.

Their defenders, in turn, contended the stories were being driven by rivals seeking to improve their own relationships with Trump. Blair has since traveled twice with Trump on Air Force One in the past week, in a sign the president still has faith in his core team.

“A knife to James or Chris is meant for Susie,” one source familiar with the dynamics said.

The striking run of incidents has prompted competing efforts across Trump world to smoke out who is leaking against whom and to what end, two people familiar with the matter said. There’s now speculation across the administration over who around Trump will take the fall if the midterms go poorly, which senior officials will be fired and how many aides might opt to leave in the aftermath, those people said.

“If we lose both the House and the Senate, there’s really no telling what happens,” one Trump adviser told CNN. “Everyone is fair game.”

In a statement, White House spokesman Davis Ingle dismissed any focus on the administration’s internal dynamics as “baseless speculation.”

“President Trump is laser-focused on maintaining Republican majorities in Congress this November, which is why he is traveling across the country highlighting the historic victories his Administration has delivered for the American people,” he said.

Still, in a sign of the intense maneuvering, Wiles faced a rush of scrutiny after it became clear she wasn’t present when Trump offered Zacharia the press secretary job. Some interpreted the incident as a sign of weakening authority and an opening to push her out of a job that’s allowed her to wield sweeping power, two Trump advisers said.

There was chatter that Wiles might soon step down, especially after a monthslong bout with cancer and as she approaches a two-year mark where many top White House aides traditionally choose to depart. Trump had four chiefs of staff during his first term and none stayed in the job for two years.

But she has not signaled any plans to leave, and Trump recently issued a full-throated vote of confidence, insisting there’s “zero chance” he’d replace her.

“She’s not going anywhere,” a senior administration official said of Wiles.

The election outcome is also expected to determine whether several Cabinet secretaries leave their posts rather than face the prospect of months of investigations from newly empowered Democrats. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is expected to be an early target for congressional Democrats, has long battled speculation that he may end up on the hot seat. But Trump has repeatedly defended his zealous, made-for-TV secretary.

Some officials have also speculated that Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who has been charged with managing some of the most damaging economic fallout of the war with Iran, might opt to leave the administration to pursue a more lucrative job in the energy sector.

Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Hegseth wasn’t focused on “fake news or DC noise.” An Energy Department spokesperson denied that Wright was contemplating leaving and said he would remain in the job “as long as the president wants him to serve.”

Others, meanwhile, are preparing for the prospect of extensive post-election score settling from Trump or his close allies. Allies of Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the National Institutes of Health, have expressed fear that he could be among those most at risk of being fired following a high-profile clash with White House budget chief Russ Vought over control of his agency’s grant spending, two people familiar with the matter said.

The NIH declined to comment, though one person familiar with the dynamics said officials have improved the working relationship between NIH and Vought’s agency in recent weeks.

A White House official said Trump and his team are focused solely on the midterms.

Administrations traditionally face some level of turnover following the midterms, which simultaneously serve as a natural exit point for many senior officials and an opportunity for the president to reset priorities ahead of the final two years of his term.

But within this administration, where power is measured chiefly by one’s proximity to Trump and allegiances are ever-changing, any fresh vacancies could dramatically shift the balance of power within the White House and alter the trajectory of its agenda.

Trump has not yet given any overt indications that he plans to make personnel changes after the elections, according to people who have spoken with him. And he has expressed optimism that his recent travel blitz on behalf of GOP candidates is having a positive impact on the party’s odds of holding control of Congress.

But many of Trump’s aides and advisers remain grim about their chances. The GOP’s House majority, they believe, is likely lost, and at this point the mission is more focused on limiting the scale of those losses.

While Trump advisers still believe they can hold the Senate, there is broad consternation that the combination of voter backlash against the administration and a handful of poor Senate campaigns has made the effort far more difficult than normal.

It’s a challenge that even Trump has privately acknowledged at times, according to the people who have spoken with him. He’s questioned why the political landscape for the GOP is so poor and vented about the party’s political strategy.

Should Republicans suffer extensive losses on November 3, those people added, Trump is certain to find someone to blame — and it won’t be him.

“The president always loses, for whatever reason, the midterms,” Trump lamented on Tuesday. “If I can get my voters, MAGA Republicans, whatever you want to call (them), if they get out to vote, we’ll win in a landslide. But they have to want to get out to vote, and if you’re not on the ballot, it’s a little harder.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.