Brenda Fitzgerald Joins Long List Of Short-Serving Trump Administration Officials

The latest official to join the list of people who have quit or were fired from Trump’s administration is Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The head of America’s leading health protection agency resigned after it was revealed that she had bought shares in a tobacco company. Officials said the reason for her quitting was “conflicts of interest that made it difficult to do her job."

Matt Llyod, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement, “Dr. Fitzgerald owns certain complex financial interests that have imposed a broad recusal limiting her ability to complete all of her duties as the CDC Director. Due to the nature of these financial interests, Dr. Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period,” The Independent reported.

Politico had initially reported that Fitzgerald had bought shares in a company that produces tobacco, which is one of the major causes of preventable death in the United States. Her resignation came just a month after she was assigned to the post.

Apart from Fitzgerald, several other officials bid farewell to their posts under the Trump administration over the past year.

Tom Price, who was assigned as Secretary of Health and Human Services in February 2017, resigned on Sept. 29, 2017, in the midst of a controversy over his use of private jets for government travel. Reports said the former congressman took as many as 26 chartered planes during his short tenure of 232 days, spending an estimated$1 million of the taxpayer's money.

In his resignation letter to the POTUS, Price wrote, “I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives."

Another addition to the list is former White House chief strategist and chief executive officer of Trump campaign Steve Bannon, who resigned in August 2018. At the time a White House official had said that the increase in the differences between Bannon and Trump led to his ousting. Reports also stated that Bannon’s comments about North Korea might be the reason behind his resignation.

"White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best," White House had said in a statement.

However, one of the shortest-lived members of the Trump administration was former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired just 10 days after his appointment on July 21, 2017. Reports stated Scaramucci was ousted from the White House after he abused two top White House officials during an interview.

While speaking about former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Scaramucci had told a New Yorker reporter, “Reince is an f------ paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac."

He also parodied Priebus and said, "Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months."

In the same interview, he also abused Steve Bannon saying, "I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own c---.”

Other prominent names who quit the White House under the Trump administration were Mike Dubke, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, and Sebastian Gorka among others.