Two of Sen. John Fetterman’s longest-serving staff members are leaving his team as the senator takes a more open approach to President Donald Trump than many of his Democratic colleagues are.
Charlie Hills, Fetterman’s communications director, and Tré Easton, his legislative director, are set to soon depart the Pennsylvania Democrat’s office.
Both men worked on Fetterman’s 2022 campaign and have been with him during his two-year Senate career.
“Working for John afforded me the opportunity to build a diligent policy team from scratch,” Easton said in a statement to NBC News. “Together we created a legislative body of work that I think is a blueprint for how Democrats should be governing when they have power. I’ll forever be grateful.”
The departures come one month after Carrie Adams left as Fetterman's communications director. She had garnered attention when she was quoted in a Free Press article disagreeing with the senator on Israel and the war in Gaza. That followed Fetterman losing three of his top communications staffers last March, before his chief-of-staff, Adam Jentleson, stepped down.
The senator’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Fetterman’s gradual shift from supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in his 2016 presidential campaign to becoming the Democrats’ most outspoken pro-Israel advocate and leading internal critic of what he sees as the party’s anti-Trump excesses has surprised many who worked on or supported his 2022 Senate campaign. But even after his shift, he was a reliable Democratic vote in passing President Joe Biden’s agenda through Congress.
Fetterman’s political evolution has won him newfound fans on the right. He was the first — and so far, only — Democratic senator to meet privately with Trump following his win last fall. Afterward, Trump called him “a commonsense person” in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Fetterman also spearhead Democratic support for the Laken Riley Act, which Trump signed into law last month. The legislation allows the Department of Homeland Security to detain noncitizens who are charged with certain crimes.
Fetterman voted for a handful of Trump’s Cabinet picks who otherwise have received little Democratic support, including Lee Zeldin for Environmental Protection Agency administrator. He was also the only Democrat to vote for Pam Bondi as attorney general.
But Fetterman, who has urged Democrats to stop “freaking out” over everything Trump does, has voted against other Trump picks, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
And on Monday, Fetterman, who has been complimentary of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who is spearheading Trump’s effort to radically upend and shrink the federal government, criticized the billionaire mogul as his so-called Department of Government Efficiency seeks access to private taxpayer data.
“I want to save billions of your money and make our government more efficient,” Fetterman said on X. “Rummaging through your personal s--- is *not* that. A party of chaos loses — always.”
