• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

A CEO gave his employees Fridays off. Three years later, revenue is up about 160%

2

'On par with what the DoD pursued during the Cold War': Pentagon’s war stockpile plan hits a minerals wall

3

‘No vote, no warning, just plain math’: Social Security is six years from an automatic 22% cut—and most Americans have no idea

1

A CEO gave his employees Fridays off. Three years later, revenue is up about 160%

2

'On par with what the DoD pursued during the Cold War': Pentagon’s war stockpile plan hits a minerals wall

3

‘No vote, no warning, just plain math’: Social Security is six years from an automatic 22% cut—and most Americans have no idea
NewslettersMPW Daily

Susie Wiles is the latest woman to take the fall for the Trump administration

Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
November 9, 2026, 2:04 PM ET
Susie Wiles will be replaced by Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff, the latest in a long line of women to exit the administration.
Susie Wiles will be replaced by Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff, the latest in a long line of women to exit the administration. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Google source logo
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Consider this question posed by Vanity Fair: What will Trump do when he runs out of women to fire?

Recommended Video

On Friday, President Trump announced that he would replace his White House chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, the hardline deputy chief of staff behind Trump’s immigration policy and more.

Wiles’ ouster came after the Republicans’ major losses in the midterms. Trump initially responded to the election’s results with the rationalization that he wasn’t, personally, on the ballot. But the New York Times reports that on election night, he blamed Wiles for the party’s losses in front of other people.

Wiles joins a now-long list of women who were hired and fired (or forced out) by the second Trump administration: Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Tulsi Gabbard. There’s the exit of press secretary Karoline Leavitt—who reportedly resigned after Trump wouldn’t stop calling her on maternity leave—and the weeklong tenure of her successor Katie Zacharia. Don’t forget Kimberly Guilfoyle’s firing as ambassador to Greece, announced on live TV.

There were reasons, or scandals, behind most of these departures. Noem was ousted amid intense scrutiny over ICE’s operations, especially in Minnesota. Bondi, the attorney general, was caught up in uproar over the Epstein files. Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, was investigated for misconduct, including reports of improper spending and that her husband was accused of making unwanted sexual advances to female Labor Department staff. (A lawyer for Chavez-DeRemer has said she did not violate the law.) Gabbard, the national security advisor, resigned amid the war in Iran and after her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

But men in the Trump cabinet like Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have a list of scandals that’s equally long or longer—and there they remain.

At one point last year, Trump boasted that his administration had “more women in our cabinet than any Republican president in the history of our country.”

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, an academic studying governance, told the New York Times last month: “I’ve never seen a situation where all of the first set of cabinet departures have been of one gender—all women.”

Wiles was a key architect of Trump’s return to power. She was the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff and, for a while, was a kind of Trump whisperer. But CNN reports that she decided to resign after seeing the president lose confidence in her. She “[believed] he should be able to tap someone to lead his White House that had his confidence,” CNN reported. She had previously said she would stay on through the end of the term, but has been dealt other blows this year, including a battle with breast cancer.

The women remaining at the top of the Trump administration are Kelly Loeffler, the head of the Small Business Administration; Secretary of Education Linda McMahon; and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Replacements for Bondi, Chavez-DeRemer, and Noem were all white men.

The MAGA movement welcomes women to join—but when push comes to shove, the default seems to be protecting its own.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

About that Chinese spy... Nvidia's Jensen Huang confirmed to Nvidia's board that he had an affair with a woman named Alice Huang, who U.S. intelligence determined was a Chinese spy. Everything we know about Alice Huang: she founded Megaspeed International, the largest buyer of Nvidia’s chips in Southeast Asia. She was recruited by Beijing to target Jensen Huang, and she used to work in private equity and as a TV reporter. 

A CEO transition to watch. SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz is stepping down—and her replacement is Anjali Sud, the 43-year-old CEO of Tubi who has served on SiriusXM's board. SiriusXM is a nearly $8.6 billion-in-revenue business ranked No. 463 on the Fortune 500—and this is a rare Fortune 500 CEO transition between two women. You can revisit my 2025 feature on Witz's attempt at a turnaround here. 

Russell Brand is sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison. The judge overseeing the sentencing in the U.K. called the former comedian and actor a sexual predator with "casual, arrogant disregard" for the wishes of women, whose status in the industry protected him until 2023. 

Another celeb brand bites the dust. This time it's Betty Buzz and Betty Booze, the beverage brands founded by Blake Lively. The growth of the brands seems to have been affected by the controversy surrounding Lively and It Ends With Us—one of the dangers of building a brand around one persona. Lively's haircare brand Blake Brown Beauty is still active. 

ON MY RADAR

Meet the 23-year-old college dropout already making six figures as Walmart’s youngest U.S. store manager Fortune

Conservative women's favorite podcaster is burned out on politics Bloomberg

I told women to stop chasing balance. Now I'm telling them to ask for help Fortune

PARTING WORDS

"Women are tremendous economic drivers in this economy, and we still aren’t making art for them."

—The Gilded Age star Carrie Coon

This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
About the Author
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Google source logo
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Newsletters


Most Popular

Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

    Recommended For You

    © 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
    FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.