Pam Bondi fails Trump’s loyalty test

The criminal cases Trump demanded his attorney general bring stalled or failed to get off the starting line.

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to reporters as President Donald Trump listens on June 27, 2025, at the White House. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

Pam Bondi did almost everything Donald Trump asked. It wasn’t enough.

Bondi’s ouster as attorney general Thursday continued a string of unceremonious departures for the occupants of Trump’s most perilous Cabinet post. All have one commonality: Failure, in Trump’s eyes, to sufficiently use the Justice Department as a shield from legal scrutiny and a sword against his political enemies.

Against that troubled history, the role will fall to another — perhaps EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin or Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — with the same Sword of Damocles dangling above. One of the crucial questions that person will face: How far will you go to avoid Bondi’s fate?

© Politico