President Donald Trump started his second term with a Cabinet that included seven women—a decent number. Men had some of the highest-profile Cabinet positions like Pete Hegseth as secretary of war and Marco Rubio as secretary of state, but women were definitely part of MAGA 2.0.
Just over a year later, fewer than half of those women remain. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer have all left their posts over the past three months—and now, so has Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Gabbard
announced her resignation on Friday, citing the need to care for her husband, who she said has been diagnosed with a rare bone cancer.
But in the months leading up to her resignation, Gabbard had been repeatedly sidelined from national security decisions.
As CNN reported, when Trump’s national security team watched operations in Venezuela, Gabbard was in Hawaii. And when Trump launched strikes on Iran, Gabbard was in Washington with other Cabinet members—but Trump was at Mar-a-Lago with his CIA director, chairman of the join chiefs, and Hegseth.
The Guardian reported that Trump
had been polling Cabinet members in recent weeks about whether he should replace Gabbard; he was reportedly upset that she protected a deputy who had opposed his war in Iran.
Gabbard, who is known as an isolationist on foreign policy, was sidelined from these major decisions even as she pursued Trump’s priorities domestically. That included declassifying documents on 2016 Russian election interference (to prove a supposed conspiracy against Trump) and testing voting machines in Puerto Rico to try to prove election rigging, to no avail.
That
has a lot in common with the ousters of other Cabinet members, like ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi pursued Trump priorities like probing some of his political targets, but he was left dissatisfied with uproar over the Epstein files, among other issues.
So, for those keeping score, that’s four women ousted from Trump’s Cabinet. And those women are the only ones who have left their jobs—all the original men in the Cabinet are still there. (FDA commissioner Marty Makary was ousted too, but the position isn’t part of the Cabinet.) All four women have been replaced by men.
Left standing are Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and head of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler.
It’s hard to assess whether any of these Cabinet members were succeeding in their posts. Some of them,
like Chavez-DeRemer, had their own scandals. (And what even is “success” in this administration?) Still, it’s clear: In MAGA world, women can play along and rise close to the top—but can never secure the same protection-at-all-costs afforded to the ultimate boys’ club.
Emma Hinchliffeemma.hinchliffe@fortune.comThe Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’
s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
