WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump had grown dissatisfied with Attorney General Pam Bondi and was considering replacing her, eight people familiar with the situation said, before he ultimately fired her Thursday.
Trump had grown “more and more frustrated” with Bondi, a person familiar with White House deliberations said, adding that while he likes her as a person, he doesn’t think she “executed on his vision” way that he wanted.
Trump attends SCOTUS birthright citizenship arguments
Two of the sources told NBC News that Trump and Bondi had a heated confrontation at the White House last week, although they did not specify what it was about.
Bondi was seen traveling with Trump to the Supreme Court on Wednesday for oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case, and she attended his prime-time address at the White House about the Iran war.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person, and she is doing a good job,” Trump said Thursday in a comment provided to NBC News.
Still, the writing appeared to be on the wall. Hours before the firing became public, a person close to the president told NBC News that the decision might be “imminent.”
Trump confirmed the news on his social media platform, announcing that Bondi — "a loyal friend, who faithfully served" — would be replaced by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, serving as the acting attorney general.
"Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900," he wrote. "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."
The Justice Department did not reply to a request for comment. The New York Times first reported that Trump was considering replacing Bondi.
Another top contender for Bondi's job was Lee Zeldin, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency and previously was a congressman from New York. Two people familiar with the conversations said Trump had been asking friends and people in his circle about Zeldin as a possible replacement.
A key consideration in choosing a successor, these people said, was who could be confirmed by the Senate. Blanche, whom Trump called “a very talented and respected Legal Mind” in his post Thursday, has already been confirmed as deputy on a 52-46 vote.
Blanche previously was a personal lawyer for Trump, including defending him in the New York hush money case, in which Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has sought to have that conviction tossed.
There was a perception that Bondi was focused on the wrong things and unable to marshal the Justice Department’s resources to reach his goals.
Since the Jeffrey Epstein files saga emerged, Bondi had struggled to regain her footing with Trump and deliver wins.
Trump’s frustration bled out publicly in a since-deleted Truth Social post last year, when he wrote: “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’ Then we almost put in a Democrat supported U.S. Attorney, in Virginia, with a really bad Republican past.”
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he added. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Some of Trump's allies were frustrated by Bondi’s handling of the files and believe she hadn’t been aggressive enough at delivering wins in investigations against Trump’s political foes.
Failing to secure indictments “is a problem for job security with the president,” a former White House official said. “No one is more anxious than Trump to get everything done immediately. He’s at a stage in life where he realizes that time goes fast. He wants action.”
A Trump ally said: “The president wanted indictments against people he believes broke the law. There have been some, but that whole thing has not really gone anywhere. I think that’s a factor, but I believe it’s probably just a long time coming.”
Just last week, Blanche touted a housecleaning at the Justice Department and the FBI, saying all employees who had been involved in prosecuting Trump were gone. “There is not a single man or woman at the Department of Justice who had anything to do with those prosecutions,” Blanche said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas.
The Justice Department has tried to prosecute some of Trump’s top political targets, but his own words and actions have, at times, undermined those cases.
Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James had motions pending before a judge arguing that the cases against them were the products of “selective and vindictive prosecution” when a judge dismissed the cases, ruling that Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan had been unlawfully appointed interim U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia.
In February, two associates of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, tried to indict six sitting members of Congress over their political speech in a social media video that told members of the military and intelligence communities that they shouldn’t obey unlawful orders. But federal grand jurors, as NBC News first reported, universally rejected the attempted indictment, which legal experts said would have run roughshod over the First Amendment.
