One of President Donald Trump’s congressional point men has reportedly fled the White House, deepening a growing departure crisis.
James Braid, described by Politico as “the top White House aide in charge of liaising with Congress,” lasted just 19 months in Trump’s tumultuous second term, a tenure punctuated by several high-profile departures.
The timing will prove a headache for Trump, who, with just 75 days to go until the Midterm elections, could use a canny operator to bridge the gap between the White House and Congress.
Braid follows four of his colleagues out the door, with more departures on the horizon.
Andy Baker, 46, the White House’s deputy national security adviser and close ally to Vice President JD Vance, is on his way out. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, White House Counsel David Warrington, 58, and Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson have also quit.
Braid, officially Trump’s director of legislative affairs, has been a vital conduit between the president and a narrow majority in both chambers. Indeed, Braid, who also served in Trump’s rollercoaster first term, played a key role in pushing through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s signature legislative achievement.
Braid’s next move remains unknown. His exit follows a string of departures that have stymied the wider operation. Perhaps the biggest of those is Leavitt, who announced earlier this month that she is leaving the administration to focus on her young family. Leavitt, who turns 29 next week, announced the move after a period of maternity leave following the birth of her second child, Viviana, in May.
“Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” Trump reacted on Truth Social.
The president added that Leavitt would remain one of his “top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”
Leavitt has been the face of the administration, jostling with the press and hammering home Trump’s message. One of his lesser-spotted enforcers, deputy chief of staff James Blair, has temporarily departed the White House to oversee the president’s “entire political operation from the outside as well as midterm spending.”
Brash comms whizz Tricia McLaughlin was an early casualty. The Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, who is in her early thirties, left in February last year after carving out a niche as one of the administration’s most vocal defenders of its aggressive, often deadly, immigration crackdown.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer are all out, too. Noem’s firing in March meant that Corey Lewandowski, her senior adviser and rumored lover, got the boot, too.
Joe Kent was appointed as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center when Trump took office. He resigned in protest of the Iran war on March 17.
The war is proving divisive in the upper echelons of government, so losing Braid could hurt Trump even more. The conflict, launched by Trump alongside Israel in February without congressional approval, is also deeply unpopular with the public.
In fact, the 80-year-old’s approval rating has hit a nadir, a measly 33 percent, because of the war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday.
Americans are worried that the war is growing more and more attritional and the quick-in-and-out job promised by Trump is a fallacy. A huge 64 percent of respondents said they don’t have faith in the president.
This new low ties the lowest level of his first term, reached in December 2017.
The White House has been approached for comment on Braid’s reported departure.
