President Donald Trump has fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi amid reports that he grew increasingly frustrated over the Department of Justice’s handling of the FBI files on child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, as well as her lack of success at prosecuting Trump’s political enemies.
Bondi’s leadership at the DOJ has been under great scrutiny, particularly from Democrats who accused her of using the powers of the nation’s law enforcement agency to shield the president and wealthy and powerful individuals who enabled Epstein’s decades-long child sex trafficking ring. For months, Bondi, a Trump loyalist, faced calls for her firing or impeachment from Democrats.
Bondi’s ousting marks the second major Cabinet exit in less than a month. On March 5, Trump also fired Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security. Noem faced criticisms over her use of taxpayer dollars to bolster her image and DHS’s violent and deadly immigration operations across the country, most notably in Minneapolis.
“Well… first it was Kristi Noem, now it’s Pam Bondi… it would be too much like right that Pete be next. I see a theme. He will throw the incompetent women under the bus a lot faster than the incompetent men,” U.S. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, wrote on X. “The President nominated these awful people, the Republican controlled Senate confirmed them, and well… too many people thought we should give this much power to the Pu**y grabbing, 6x bankruptcy filing, 34 count convicted felon bestie of Epstein.”
Despite reports of Trump’s frustrations over Bondi, the president praised her in a Truth Social statement announcing her departure.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900,” wrote Trump. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General.”
Trump also announced that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general until a new AG is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The president is reportedly considering naming Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin as Bondi’s replacement. While Zeldin has a law degree, he has never served as a prosecutor.
Bondi’s ouster is not much of a surprise in the political world, particularly for Democrats, who have made Bondi a major target within the Trump administration.
Anthony Coley, a former DOJ official during the Biden Administration, told theGrio, “Trump’s frustration with Bondi is that she simply couldn’t deliver on all of his vendettas. Courts push back. Grand juries don’t rubber-stamp. And her mishandling of the Epstein matter from the beginning only added fuel to the fire.”
Yemisi Egbewole, a former Biden White House official, told theGrio that there were signs that President Trump’s confidence in Bondi was waning.
“Trump has been locking Bondi out for a minute now. We saw that when she left out of the loop on Tish James. But her biggest failure is Epstein. She wrote a check she couldn’t cash,” said Egbewole. “She made a promise to a huge base of the party that she would deliver on Epstein and then she betrayed them. She made them feel stupid for even wanting to know the answers behind the case. She made her own bed and then Trump buried her in it.”
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said Bondi was a “danger to democracy” and “never belonged in the Department of Justice.”
“But let’s not forget who appointed her in the first place. As we have stated, Donald Trump is wholly unfit to serve as President, and his minions only answer to his authoritarian commands,” Johnson added. “Like Bovino, like Noem, and now Bondi – don’t fall for the fall person. Trump is the one calling the shots. He’s the one we must stay focused on.”
