Susan Monarez isn't "aligned with" Trump's agenda and refused to resign, so the White House terminated her, spokesman Kush Desai said Wednesday night. Her lawyers say she's being targeted for standing up for science, and won't leave unless the president himself fires her, which is the legal process for a Senate-confirmed officer.
HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. declined to directly comment on the ouster of CDC Director Susan Monarez and the resignations of several other top agency officials in an appearance Thursday on Fox and Friends. But he signaled that he continues to have concerns about CDC officials being aligned with his and Trump's outlook on health policy.
"So we need to look at the priorities of the agency, if there's really a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency," Kennedy said. "And we need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump's broad ambitions."
The White House confirmed late Wednesday that Monarez was fired after it was determined she isn't "aligned with" Trump's agenda and refused to resign. She was sworn in as head of the CDC less than a month ago.
Attorney Mark Zaid said in a post on X late Wednesday that CDC Director Susan Monarez, as a presidential appointee and Senate-confirmed officer, can be fired only by President Donald Trump.
Zaid says that instead, Monarez was informed of her firing by staff in the presidential personnel office. Zaid says that notification was "legally deficient" and that Monarez will remain as the public health agency's leader.
The Trump administration awarded a $1.2 billion contract last month to build and operate what's expected to become the nation's largest immigration detention complex. The money is going to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
A member of Congress who recently toured the camp said she was concerned that such a small and inexperienced firm had been entrusted to build and run a facility expected to house up to 5,000 migrants.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is doubling down on his message to Trump that the nation's third-largest city doesn't need or want military intervention to fight crime.
"We want to make sure and show off that there's no emergency happening in Chicago," the Democrat told The Associated Press during a walking tour Wednesday of a South Side neighborhood where revitalization has included an art studio, aquarium store and wine bar. "We've been trying to prevent crime and it's been working."
Pritzker, eyed as a possible 2028 presidential contender, has traded insults with Trump over his threats to deploy the National Guard to Chicago and Baltimore, as the administration has done in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Pritzker and Chicago leaders vow to sue, but Pritzker meanwhile has convened news conferences, posted sarcastic social media and choreographed a campaign-style neighborhood stop to keep his city in the spotlight.