When evaluating a candidate for a role, you would be wise to consider what those who have worked with them in the past think of them — that’s why we ask for references during a job interview process. Unfortunately for Donald Trump, a majority of his closest advisors don’t support him and cannot recommend him as being fit for the presidency — and in fact many are actively campaigning against him and supporting the Harris-Walz ticket in the 2024 election.
And these aren’t just people out at the edges of a sprawling administration — these folks are from the inner circle, the cabinet, the military’s top brass, and other high-level officials in or near the White House who routinely interacted with the then-President.
Trump bragged about hiring all the best people — but then proceeded to fire a huge swath of them for having the audacity of disagreeing with him, or other trivial reason. Of those that remained, an unusually large number resigned from his administration in protest over whatever they saw as their personal last straw — many on January 6. And of that whole set, a conspicuously large number are now actively speaking out against the former president and working to prevent him from ascending to a second term.
I’ve been a voter for 30 years. And never have I seen the outpouring of “duty to warn” from former officials of someone seeking re-election. Never has this many of the president’s closest advisors refused to support him for a second term. Let’s hear why, in their own words.
Mike Pence
Former Vice President
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” he said to Fox News — an extraordinary historical moment when a VP cannot in good conscience support their own former President. Of course, when that former President tried to murder to you — or at the very least looked the other way while it happened in front of him on TV — it might be more difficult to get over than the usual spat between political cronies.
Mark Esper
Former Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army
Another rare moment: when a former cabinet member goes on national television weeks before an election to warn the American public about the dangers of their former boss. I have definitely never seen this in my lifetime and my 30 years of voting.
“I think he’s unfit for the presidency. As somebody who worked directly for him — I don’t think he’s the right person for our country. And so I will not be supporting him.” — to CNN, April 16
“Trump is not fit for office because he puts himself first and I think anybody running for office should put the country first.”
In November of 2022, Esper told CNN that “I believe he has integrity and character issues as well,” of Trump. And on March 14, 2024 he gave an interview on MSNBC where he reminded us that Trump wanted to send the US military after protestors in DC:
Mark Milley
Former General of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The 40+-year veteran of the US military called Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country” in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book, War. The now retired US army general has warned former colleagues and gone public in the press about Trump’s fantasies of revenge against those who dared criticize and speak out against Trump, as Milley has.
John Bolton
Former National Security Advisor and US Ambassador to the UN
“There will be celebrations in the Kremlin if Trump is elected in November. Putin thinks that he is an easy mark. Donald Trump wants Americans to treat him like North Koreans treat Kim Jong Un. Get ready.”
Bolton gave Trump low marks for his performance as president: “He doesn’t understand the job, particularly in the national security space.” Some would (rightly) think that a disqualifying quality in a commander-in-chief.
William Barr
Former Attorney General
“I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump. One of the reasons I’m against Trump as the nominee is I don’t think he’s going to move the country forward.”
In June 2023 Barr told CBS that Trump “is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.”
In October 2023 he doubled down on mocking Trump’s mental acuity and character: “He’s already saying it’s going to be about retribution. And he’s, you know, he’s a very petty man. And it’s all about him. And he has a very fragile ego and you know, something happened to him as a kid and I’m not going to spend time psychoanalyzing it but, you know, every encounter he has to come out showing the other guy that he’s better.” Barr added, “It’s all about, you know, the assertion of his ego, and I think he will be self-indulgent in a new administration and won’t be as effective as he could otherwise be and probably things would start moving toward chaos.”
James Mattis
Former Secretary of Defense
Highly decorated Marine Corps General Jim Mattis slammed Trump as a “threat to the Constitution,” saying of his threat to deploy US troops on protestors in DC: “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”
“Trump’s use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try Instead, he tries to divide us.”
John Kelly
Former White House Chief of Staff
The longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump has revealed and confirmed scathing details about Trump up close and in person, in particular his disdain for the military and for the “suckers” and “losers” that gave their lives defending the freedoms of the USA.
“Trump is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no ides what America is all about. He’s a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
Earlier, in an exclusive interview to CNN in October 2023, Kelly called Trump “a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
Stephanie Grisham
Former White House Press Secretary
Trump’s former Press Secretary — and one of his closest advisors — has attended Democratic campaign events in swing states to persuade people that they really don’t want four more years of her former boss.
“When you’re actually talking to people, the thing that has been for me, most impactful: ‘Hey, I’m not a disgruntled employee. I’m not angry. I just really know him and I’m able to give so many real life examples of some of the stuff he’s done or said,” she says of that work.
She said he mocks his supporters, calling them basement dwellers. “He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth.”
Grisham was one of the first senior advisors to resign on January 6 as the insurrection and attack on the Capitol unfolded, after pleading with Melania to intervene and being rebuffed. She spoke at this year’s Democratic National Convention about her support for Kamala Harris.
Olivia Troye
Former Homeland Security Advisor to Vice President Pence
Another lifelong Republican who spoke at the 2024 DNC, Olivia Troye resigned from the Trump administration after a last straw seeing the reprehensible behaviors of Trump in the White House. Troye speaks out frequently against the former president and is supporting Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
She says of the dangers of a Trump second term, that the “guardrails will be gone. … I’m having a tough time understanding why people still think that the norms that we’re used to about Congress, Justice, the Supreme Court, the executive branch – why they think Trump will abide by any of that because he’s shown his complete disregard for government institutions. A lot of these people that will be serving with him were on board and behaved that way. It was the guard rails that were there the first time around that kept them in check.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin
Former White House Communications Director
“The reason that I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump this year also has to do with the fact that he is walking away. Not just from keeping faith with the constitution on January 6th, but also from… a commitment to American leadership in the world.”
Mick Mulvaney
Former Chief of Staff
“I am working hard to make sure that someone else is the nominee.”
HR McMaster
Former National Security Advisor
“It would be terribly divisive for our country for Trump to run again.”
“He’s addicted to adulation.”
“He encouraged an attack on the first branch of government, and an attack on the peaceful transition of power — and that was an abandonment of his responsibilities to the Constitution.”
Cassidy Hutchinson
Former Aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson served as an assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration, before gaining national prominence for her testimony before the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
“If Trump is elected president again in 2024, I do fear that it will be the last election where we’re voting for democracy because, if he is elected again, I don’t think we’ll be voting under the same Constitution.”
Sarah Matthews
Former Deputy White House Press Secretary
Another former Trump official now campaigning against him, former spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said that it’s not too late to get the word out to the American people about the sinister and dangerous nature of a second Trump presidency.
“There were a lot of people in the White House who know better than anyone. They were in the Situation Room with Trump. They saw his decision-making. They saw how unfit he is.”
“Trump has a history of making unhinged comments. He helped incite a deadly insurrection on our nation’s Capitol.”
Matthews testified during the House January 6 Committee about why she resigned, and her take on Trump’s behavior that day.
Anthony Scaramucci
Former White House Communications Director
“Trump’s going to make things rougher for people. He has already said he’s going after his adversaries using the Department of Justice. When someone’s telling you they’re going to flex and be a dictator on day one and go after their adversaries, this is against the 200+ year experiment of America.”
Liz Cheney
Former Republican Representative from Wyoming
Former House Minority Leader during the Trump admin and daughter of notorious right-wing operative Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney also served as the Co-Chair of the January 6 Committee that investigated Donald Trump’s insurrection attempt following his loss in the 2020 election.
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