Top DHS Spokeswoman To Leave Trump Administration

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin will soon leave the Trump administration, a source familiar with her plans told The Daily Wire on Tuesday.

McLaughlin had planned to leave the department in December, but according to POLITICO, stayed on board in the wake of the two fatal shootings in Minneapolis last month.

POLITICO first reported the news of McLaughlin’s departure, saying that she intends to inform colleagues on Tuesday. She will be leaving the department next week.

McLaughlin was a top communications aide on Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign and on Ohio GOP Governor Mike DeWine’s, according to POLITICO. She also served in the first Trump administration, working for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and at the Department of State, where she was tasked with arms control issues.

Lauren Bis, who currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary for media relations at DHS, will step into McLaughlin’s role as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, according to a source.

News of McLaughlin’s exit comes just days after the Wall Street Journal reported a culture of “constant chaos” enduring at DHS under Secretary Kristi Noem, “who has attempted to burnish her personal stardom at every turn.” The report also highlighted a purported incident in which a Coast Guard pilot was fired by longtime Trump aide Corey Lewandowski for misplacing the secretary’s blanket.

It also comes amid a government shutdown largely targeting DHS, as Congressional Democrats attempt to force the Trump administration to meet a laundry list of demands to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

McLaughlin appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the funding freeze, saying ICE won’t stop operations during the shutdown because it is a critical federal law enforcement agency.

“Our immigration enforcement efforts will not be hampered by this in any way,” McLaughlin said.

The lapse in funding, however, will significantly impact other DHS subagencies, such as TSA, she said.

“The Democrat politicians here, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, they are holding the American people’s national security hostage just in the name of scoring cheap political points, it’s really nonsensical,” she said.

When asked by the Cincinnati Enquirer recently if she intended to run for office, McLaughlin said she “wouldn’t rule anything out.”

“I don’t know if that’s going to be a year from now or that’ll be five years from now,” McLaughlin said. “I love Cincinnati. It’s my home and I don’t think there’s any place like it.”

Several top officials at DHS have recently left their posts. That includes former deputy ICE director Madison Sheehan, who resigned last month and subsequently launched a bid for Congress in Ohio.

ICE’s former spokeswoman, Emily Covington, also recently moved to the Department of Justice.