Turnover in Biden's Cabinet has been 'historically low'

Compared with that of his contemporaries, President Biden's Cabinet has had "unusually low turnover" just over two years into his administration, FiveThirtyEight reports.

In fact, Biden is "tied with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush for the fewest Cabinet resignations in the first two years of their presidencies," the outlet notes. Ron Klain, whose final day as White House chief of staff was Wednesday, was "just the second Cabinet-level official to quit."

But that's only if you count the resignation of former Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric Lander, who stepped down from his post in February 2022. Biden had actually elevated that role to Cabinet level — meaning had he not, "he would have gone his first two years with no turnover in his Cabinet — something that hasn't happened since at least the late 1970s."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, "burned through personnel at a record rate," FiveThirtyEight notes. He is the only modern president to have seen more than one Cabinet resignation in his first year in office, and also saw "eight people leave these 25 posts during his second year, more than any other recent president."

As history has made clear, turnover typically increases roughly halfway through a president's first term. So it's "reasonable to assume" that added Cabinet members will step down in the "coming months." But when that happens, "it won't be a sign of turmoil within the Biden administration," FiveThirtyEight goes on. Rather, it will just be business as usual for "this point in a president's term."