THE APPRENTICE: WHITE HOUSE
Susie Wiles already got the boot. Who’s next?
President Donald Trump hinted that more members of his administration could be headed for the chopping block—just hours after he let longtime White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles go.
“I love my Cabinet. I think they’re good. But I’ll do—be doing maybe a few changes. I don’t want to mention who,” Trump told conservative 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat in an early clip from an interview that was released on Friday.
“I love my Cabinet,” Trump told ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Ross Douthat—before teasing that he’ll be firing some top names.
The president’s cryptic warning comes as Republicans continue to reel from their midterm election debacle, which has already cost Wiles her job.
One Cabinet member who may have reason to be nervous is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose name came up during the interview amid questions about the president’s unpopular war with Iran and its role in the GOP’s dismal election performance.
“I will say that we saw Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the hall. He was meeting with you just before now. His name has come up a few times,” Douthat said.
“It has,” Trump acknowledged.
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Asked whether he still had confidence in Hegseth, Trump said he did, then launched into a lengthy boast about his administration’s military operations in Venezuela.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
“I do. Look, we’ve won two wars. We’ve won Venezuela and taken out billions and billions and billions of dollars already,” Trump said, before claiming the U.S. had won the war “in less than one hour.”
But when Douthat asked whether Hegseth deserved credit for the operation, Trump was considerably less generous.
“No. But he was a part of it,” the president replied.
Douthat later told CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil that Trump had said in the interview that he agreed with Vice President JD Vance that the war with Iran was the driving force behind the GOP’s drubbing—even as the president insisted that going to war was the right decision.
“That’s what he thinks the big issue was,” Douthat said. “He just thinks it was still the right decision to go to war.
Trump also reportedly suggested that immigration could be an area of bipartisan cooperation—a curious choice given his decision to replace Wiles with Stephen Miller, the immigration hardliner who helped architect his first administration’s family-separation policy.
Douthat pointed out the apparent contradiction.
President Donald Trump announced he was promoting Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff in a Truth Social post on Friday afternoon.
The full interview airs Sunday on 60 Minutes, which has been riven with discord since MAGA-curious CBS News chief Bari Weiss took the reins in October 2025.
Weiss, who had no previous broadcast news experience, was installed by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of Trump-supporting billionaire Larry Ellison, following the company’s takeover of CBS’s parent company.
Her tenure has been marked by staffing upheaval, high-profile departures, and tanking ratings. Earlier this year, Weiss fired a swath of seasoned 60 Minutes correspondents and producers and installed a greenhorn executive producer, which prompted protests and resignations.
Bari Weiss has overseen a tumultuous time at CBS News.
Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Uber, X and The
Douthat, a conservative Catholic with no television journalism background, was hired as a correspondent in July.
Despite tanking ratings, Trump chose the flagship newsmagazine for his first one-on-one interview since the election wipeout. Weiss accompanied Douthat to the White House on Friday, where he was photographed beaming alongside Trump behind the Resolute Desk.
60 Minutes reporter Ross Douthat poses with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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