Trump responds to NYT article, says it’s ‘very good’ administration is losing legal talent
President Trump said Sunday that it’s “very good” that thousands of lawyers have chosen to no longer work for the administration. New York Times report on immigration.
More than 10,000 lawyers working for the federal government left between the end of 2024 and March 2026, the Times reported. Many of these lawyers “are flocking to the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and nonprofits who are challenging administration policies in the courts and empowering Mr. Trump’s opponents with seasoned lawyers,” the report says.
Trump wrote at Truth Social the outlet “wrote a story today titled ‘Trump Administration Sees Stunning Exodus of Legal Talent,’ as if that’s a bad thing, when in fact it’s very good.”
“The ones leaving are the Radical Left Deep State Crazies who are destroying our Country and arming the Government,” the President continued. “Many didn’t leave, but were fired! The failed New York Times writes about this but makes it sound like it’s a terrible thing, but in reality it’s the opposite.”
“In many cases they should not have represented the United States in the first place,” Trump said.
“Let them go on to ‘bigger, better and brighter’ things in the future; I fully support that and wish them all the best of luck!” he added.
According to the Times report, most of the lawyers leaving the administration in 2025 either retired, left due to staff cuts or resigned in opposition to Trump’s policies. The federal government employed 17 percent fewer lawyers by the end of 2024; As of March, approximately 37,000 civilian lawyers were working for the government.
The Department of Education has lost 53 percent of its attorneys since December 2024, followed by 40 percent of those leaving the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the same time period.
The loss of lawyers working for the administration means there are fewer people to defend the administration’s policies in court, the Times wrote. Former HUD attorney Erik Heins, who was fired last year after voicing concerns about fair housing attorneys being reassigned to other offices, said “there are a lot of things that can’t be done” without attorneys.
The Times added that the president’s “willingness to tear down traditional guardrails and upend the mission of federal agencies has created a volatile environment very different from what many career lawyers say they experienced in his first administration.”
The publication noted that the White House did not respond to questions about the environment that led many lawyers to leave the government.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Times that the administration is “fully committed to empowering and hiring hard-working Americans who are committed to public service and who fulfill the president’s many promises to the American people.”
“The individuals hired are extremely qualified and talented,” he told the outlet.
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