Tricia McLaughlin, the top spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies, is leaving her role, according to a Politico report. Her departure comes as Congress remains deadlocked on ending a partial government shutdown centered on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
McLaughlin did not say why she was leaving or where she plans to go next. However, she is expected to tell colleagues about her plans later today. Politico reports that she will leave sometime next week.
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For the past year, McLaughlin has assertively defended Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as the agency carried out mass deportations of immigrants lacking legal status to be in the United States. She was especially combative with administration critics following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
DHS officials have not said who will replace McLaughlin. She originally planned to leave at the end of last year but delayed her departure after the Minneapolis shootings, DHS officials said.
Who is Tricia McLaughlin?
McLaughlin, 31, was part of the first Trump administration, working under former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. She also had a stint at the State Department.
Following the end of the first Trump White House, McLaughlin worked as a communications aide for Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Throughout the first year of the second Trump administration, McLaughlin has championed the administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. Many have criticized aspects of the enforcement process, which led to some contentious moments between McLaughlin and the media.
“Media is so much of the battle, so to speak, on the immigration issue,” she told The Cincinnati Enquirer, her hometown newspaper, last month. “So much of the debate is a [public relations] debate. It’s a PR war.”
Following the first fatal shooting in Minneapolis, McLaughlin controversially characterized Good’s actions as “domestic terrorism.” Similarly, after Noem used the same term to describe Pretti, McLaughlin refused to walk back the characterization. After Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked her if she would also say Pretti was a domestic terrorist, she said she would wait until authorities finished their investigation.
“I think that we have to really have the investigation be leading the way on this, Stuart,” she said, “And, again, the early statements that were released with us based — was based on a chaotic scene on the ground.”
What is going on at DHS?
Politico reports that some White House officials have privately criticized Noem’s leadership of DHS. Following the negative coverage of Pretti’s killing, Trump announced that “border czar” Tom Homan would take command of the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, stirring speculation that he was losing confidence in Noem. However, Trump has continued to back Noem, saying her job is safe.
A recent Wall Street Journal article reported “constant chaos” inside the department. The publication said Noem frequently berated senior staff, requested employees whom she did not trust to take polygraph tests and fired employees for little reason. One example was when Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, allegedly fired a Coast Guard pilot after leaving Noem’s blanket on a plane.
McLaughlin denied the publication’s allegations, telling People that the story was “categorically false.”
