President Trump Rips NY Times’ Report About ‘Exodus’ Of Lawyers: ‘Actually, It’s Very Good’

Mainstream media outlets continue running with headlines suggesting the Trump administration is in collapse, despite the fact that such reports have often backfired when the actual facts emerge.

That appears to be what happened in the aftermath of a New York Times article about a supposed “exodus” of roughly 10,000 attorneys from the administration.

Mediaite provided some key details from that report:

“The last year saw deep staffing cuts and the resignations of some staff members who objected to Mr. Trump’s policies,” Fuller and Sullivan wrote. “Their departures show how rapidly the president has eroded the image of the federal government as the gold standard for lawyers seeking public service roles.”

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The Times analysis showed that more than 2,600 attorneys have left the DOJ, roughly 700 have left the Department of Defense, and nearly 300 have left the Department of Health. Further, some agencies have seen their ranks decimated. The Department of Education, for instance, has lost 53 percent of the 645 lawyers it employed at the end of 2024. 

The Trump administration has made clear that ideological buy-in is a requirement for a position. In a January X post, Chad Mizelle — former Department of Justice chief of staff under Trump — solicited attorneys who are on board with the administration.

And it was Trump himself who pointed out that the reason so many lawyers have been leaving is due to incompatibility.

He took to social media to share his reaction to the so-called exodus:

The New York Times wrote a story today entitled, “Trump Administration Sees Striking Exodus of Legal Talent,” as though that’s a bad thing, when actually, it’s very good. The people that are leaving are Radical Left Deep State Lunatics, who are destroying our Country, and… pic.twitter.com/1DP5jG5ykf

— Commentary Donald J Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) May 31, 2026

His rationale resonated with many others who see the value of maintaining consistency across the administration:

Elections are about direction. If an administration wants a team aligned with its agenda, that is not a scandal. It is how democratic accountability works. 🇺🇸

— Ethan Park (@EthanPark2017) May 31, 2026

Cleaning house was long overdue. The system needs people who serve the country, not their own agendas.

— Mike Riggs (@riggsmike271) May 31, 2026

Here’s how The Hill reported on Trump’s reaction:

“Let them go on to ‘bigger, better, and brighter’ things in the future — I fully support that, and wish them all well!” he added.

Many of the lawyers who departed the administration in 2025 either retired, left as a result of staffing cuts or resigned in opposition to Trump’s policies, the Times reported. The federal government employed 17 percent fewer lawyers than it did at the end of 2024, with about 37,000 civilian lawyers working for the government as of March.

The Department of Education lost 53 percent of its lawyers since December 2024, followed by 40 percent who left the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the same time frame.

The loss of lawyers working for the administration means that there are fewer to defend the administration’s policies in court, the Times wrote. Former HUD lawyer Erik Heins, who was fired last year after he raised concerns about fair housing lawyers being reassigned to other offices, said that without lawyers, “there are a lot of things that just can’t get done.”

The Times added that the president’s “willingness to blow through traditional guardrails and upend the mission of federal agencies has created a volatile environment far different than what many career lawyers said they experienced in his first administration.”

The outlet stated that the White House did not respond to questions about the climate that has led so many lawyers to leave the government. 

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Times that the administration “remains totally dedicated to empowering and hiring hard-working Americans who are committed to public service and delivering on the president’s many promises to the American people.”

“The individuals who are hired are extremely qualified and talented,” she said in a statement to the outlet.

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Here’s another look at how the left-wing media is covering the story, this time from MS NOW: