On Thursday, President Trump fired his attorney general, Pam Bondi, as frustrations mounted around both her deep unpopularity and Trump’s own plummeting poll numbers.

In the wake of his termination of former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Trump seems to be shedding what he believes is the baggage weighing down his administration. Whether firing the women he appointed to run two of the most important cabinet departments improves his standing with the American public remains to be seen.

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The fired cabinet secretaries also happened to be two of Trump’s most sycophantic hires.

But Bondi’s missteps, particularly around her handling of the Congressionally-mandated Epstein files release, sealed her fate as a fall guy for both that and other unpopular policies that have tarnished the DOJ’s reputation, including the scandal-plagued tenure of FBI Director Kash Patel.

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Much as Noem’s ouster was more about Americans’ doubts over Trump’s maximalist immigration crackdown than concerns over a $200 million ad campaign starring the secretary, Bondi’s firing seems to be more about general bad vibes at the DOJ – and Trump trying to shake them off – than any one particular blunder by Bondi.

To the contrary, the onetime Florida AG has executed tirelessly in service of Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department.

Bondi has enthusiastically supported Trump’s aggressive anti-trans crusade, launching dozens of Department of Justice investigations targeting states, schools, hospitals, prisons, doctors, educators, and state and local officials over actions Bondi deemed, at the president’s request, to be in conflict with Trump’s executive orders over “gender ideology,” “child mutilation,” and trans student-athletes.

Bondi’s No. 2, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, now steps into her role as Acting Attorney General.

Bondi’s latest anti-trans attack was her announcement on Monday that the DOJ will sue the state of Minnesota and the Minnesota State High School League association for allowing transgender girls to play school sports.

Last Friday, Bondi launched investigations in two more Democratic states, purportedly about housing trans women in women’s prisons.

“Keeping men out of women’s prisons is not only common sense – it’s a matter of safety and constitutional rights,” Bondi said in a statement, before showing her hand in the follow-up: “The Trump Administration will not stand by if governors are facilitating the abuse of biological women under the guise of inclusion.”

Both those governors (Democrats) happen to be vocal and unrepentant critics of Trump: potential 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom of California, and Janet Mills, who’s in a tight contest for the Democratic nomination for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat.

Mills called the investigation “politically motivated.”

In January, Bondi was ripped by a federal judge over the DOJ’s subpoenas for records detailing gender-affirming care for trans youth.

The order “has no plausible or coherent tether to its stated purpose,” the judge wrote, calling it “oppressive in its breadth.”

“The Subpoena appears to have no purpose other than to intimidate and harass the Hospital and [the families], and those similarly situated. The Government seeks to fulfill its policy agenda through compliance born of fear.“

It was Bondi’s ill-fated assignment handling the Epstein files, however, that ultimately sealed her fate – probably from the moment it was handed to her. Bondi was attacked from all sides over the plagued release of Department of Justice records detailing government cases against the notorious sex trafficker and onetime “close friend” of Donald Trump.

Not long after she took the reins at the DOJ in January 2025, Bondi told Fox News that Epstein’s client list is “sitting on my desk right now.”

“It’s sitting on my desk right now to review,” Bondi told Fox News host John Roberts that February. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.” The DOJ later claimed such a document does not exist.

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