Trump had grown frustrated with Pam Bondi as his attorney general, sources say

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump had become unhappy with Attorney General Pam Bondi and considered replacing her, eight people familiar with the matter said, before ultimately firing her on Thursday.

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Trump has become “increasingly frustrated” with Bondi, a person familiar with the White House deliberations said, adding that while he likes her as a person, he doesn’t think she “executed his vision” the way he wanted.

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Two of the sources told NBC News that Trump and Bondi had a heated confrontation at the White House last week, although they did not specify what it was about.

Bondi was seen traveling with Trump to the Supreme Court on Wednesday for oral arguments in the birthright case, and she attended his prime-time speech at the White House on the Iran war.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi is a great person and she’s doing a great job,” Trump said Thursday in a comment provided to NBC News.

Still, the writing seemed to be on the wall. Hours before the firing was made public, a person close to the president told NBC News the decision could be “imminent.”

Trump confirmed the news on his social media platform, announcing that Bondi – “a loyal friend, who has faithfully served” – would be replaced by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as acting attorney general.

“Pam has done a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown on crime across our country, with murders falling to their lowest levels since 1900,” he wrote. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to an important and much-needed new job in the private sector, which will be announced in the near future.”

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. The New York Times first reported that Trump was considering replacing Bondi.

Another major candidate for Bondi’s job was Lee Zeldin, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency and was previously a congressman from New York. Two people familiar with the conversations said Trump asked friends and people in his inner circle about Zeldin as a possible replacement.

A key factor in choosing a successor, these people said, was who could be confirmed by the Senate. Blanche, whom Trump called a “very talented and respected jurist” in his Thursday message, has already been confirmed as a congresswoman by a vote of 52 to 46.

Blanche previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, including defending him in the New York hush money case, in which Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump sought to have that conviction overturned.

There was a sense that Bondi was focused on the wrong things and was unable to mobilize the Justice Department’s resources to achieve his goals.

Since the Jeffrey Epstein files saga broke, Bondi had struggled to regain his footing with Trump and score victories.

Trump’s frustration was publicly expressed in a since-deleted Truth Social article last year when he wrote: “Pam: I’ve reviewed over 30 statements and messages saying that, essentially, ‘the same old story as last time, all talk, no action.’ Nothing is done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing will be done.” Then we almost appointed a Democrat-backed U.S. Attorney in Virginia with a very bad Republican record.

“We cannot wait any longer, this destroys our reputation and our credibility,” he added. “They indicted me twice and indicted me (5 times!), FOR NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

Some Trump allies were frustrated with Bondi’s handling of the cases and felt she had not been aggressive enough to secure victories in investigations against Trump’s political enemies.

The failure to secure indictments “is a problem for the president’s job security,” a former White House official said. “No one is more concerned than Trump about doing everything immediately. He is at a point in his life where he realizes that time is passing quickly. He wants to act.”

A Trump ally said: “The president wanted indictments against people who he said broke the law. There have been a few, but it hasn’t really come to fruition. I think that’s a factor, but I think it will probably take time.”

Last week, Blanche touted a clean-up at the Justice Department and the FBI, saying all employees involved in the prosecution of Trump were gone. “There is not a single man or woman in the Justice Department who had anything to do with these prosecutions,” Blanche said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas.

The Justice Department has attempted to pursue some of Trump’s top political targets, but its own words and actions have sometimes undermined those cases.

Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James had motions pending before a judge arguing that the cases against them were the product of “selective and vindictive prosecutions” when a judge threw out the cases, ruling that Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan had been illegally appointed as acting U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia.

In February, two associates of District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro attempted to charge six sitting members of Congress for their political speech in a social media video that told members of the military and intelligence agencies that they should not obey illegal orders. But federal grand jurors, as first reported by NBC News, universally rejected the attempted indictment, which legal experts say would have violated the First Amendment.