President Donald Trump is down another senior foreign policy hand. Andy Baker, 46, a White House deputy national security adviser, said on August 14, 2026, that he would be departing the administration in the coming weeks — the third senior departure announced in a single week, and one more marker that the flow of staff out of the West Wing has yet to slow.
The Low-Profile Adviser Behind Big Decisions
Baker kept a deliberately low public profile, and yet he had grown into one of the most consequential foreign policy voices of President Trump’s second term. Within Vice President JD Vance’s orbit he had “emerged as a key figure,” with an outsize role in shaping both Vance’s foreign policy thinking and the White House’s most consequential national security decisions. He traveled with Vice President Vance to the Munich Security Conference in February 2025, helping craft the speech Vance delivered there, and in June 2025 he sat in the Situation Room during the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. Ukraine war negotiations pulled him in directly as well, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as acting national security adviser; Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff; Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll; and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who was named special envoy for peace in February 2026.
A source close to Baker said he had pushed his exit back by several months so that his successors could take over smoothly. Cliff Sims, named in May and installed by late that month, had already succeeded Baker as Vice President Vance’s national security adviser and will remain in that role; Mike Needham, who joined at around the same time as the other deputy national security adviser, will continue in his post. Baker, for his part, is expected to move into the private sector with Robert O’Brien, who served as President Trump’s fourth national security adviser during his first term and now runs the consultancy American Global Strategies.
Baker said he felt proud of the administration’s accomplishments and expressed his appreciation to the president, vice president and Secretary Rubio for the opportunity to serve. Senior officials lined up quickly with praise. Vice President Vance called Baker “an exceptionally gifted, deeply thoughtful advisor” who had served “with distinction” and described him as “an indispensable member” of the national security team. Secretary of State Rubio said Baker had been “an invaluable asset” who “greatly advanced the America First agenda.” Needham called him “a brilliant foreign policy mind and close friend,” while Witkoff said Baker had “worked tirelessly to put America first and get deals done for the President around the world.”
A Press Secretary Steps Down First
The announcement landed on the heels of one by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said on August 12 that she was stepping down and whose last day was Thursday, August 27. Leavitt, who turned 29 on August 24, cited the demands of motherhood as the driving factor, saying she could no longer “be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary.” Two of the administration’s most visible and influential figures heading for the door within days of each other has intensified scrutiny of staffing stability inside the 80-year-old president’s inner circle, particularly with a midterm election cycle expected to be difficult now approaching. No successor to Leavitt has been named; Trump has been fielding reporters’ questions himself in the interim, and Leavitt is rejoining the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. as an outside adviser.
Exits Across the West Wing
Baker and Leavitt are far from alone. Communications, policy and press operations at the Trump White House have all produced a string of departures in recent months. White House counsel David Warrington announced his exit on August 9, effective September 1, with Will Scharf replacing him; legislative affairs director James Braid followed on August 20. Deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson, 29, announced in late July that she was leaving her $121,500-a-year post to join the political strategy firm OnMessage Public Strategies. She had come to the White House press team in May 2025 from the Republican National Committee, where she was deputy communications director, after earlier serving as communications director to Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri; August 7 was her final day. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller described Jackson as “a communications powerhouse, demonstrating at all times the highest degree of tenacity, integrity, professionalism and talent.”
Lea Bardon, the White House director of Cabinet affairs, left in April to become executive vice president at The Sovereign Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm. She was the link between Cabinet chiefs of staff, the channel through which Trump’s directives reached the wider executive branch. Weeks after that exit, Sonny Joy Nelson announced her own resignation and launched a media booking and communications consultancy called Cornerstone Strategics; a special assistant to Trump, she served as director of media affairs and had been part of his communications team dating back to his 2024 presidential campaign and in various capacities since 2020. Alex Pfeiffer, the principal deputy White House communications director, had gone even earlier, leaving in early September 2025 after about seven and a half months in the role.