Trump ousts Bondi and Noem: Loyalty and looks are not enough.

Being fired by President Trump isn’t all bad. Sure, the public humiliation isn’t any fun, and neither is losing your title and power and all the perks that go with them. But getting the ax still has its upside.

Two of the president’s loyal servants — Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, the former attorney general and former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security — just got pink slips from their boss. The silver lining for them is that at least now they won’t be impeached if (and most likely when) the Democrats take over the House in the midterm elections.

It’s always good to look on the bright side.

In the end, loyalty — and good looks, for that matter — go only so far with Trump. And it won’t save you if he thinks you made a mess of things, even if you were doing what he wanted you to do.

Make no mistake: Trump likes it when his people tell him how wonderful he is. Sycophancy does not embarrass him. Want proof? Listen to any of his televised Cabinet meetings, in which grown men and women — successful in their business lives before Trump — are reduced to adoring fans as they gush all over him, telling him what a great leader he is, how nothing would get done without him. It’s downright embarrassing — except that Trump doesn’t think so. He likes it when underlings gush all over him.

But, as I say, sycophancy is not enough.

Bondi put up a big banner outside the Department of Justice depicting the president’s face. At congressional hearings, she was combative in his defense. She was a fighter, taking on liberal Democrats who were attacking her boss. Trump likes fighters, especially the ones who are fighting for him. So, normally, that would be a plus for Bondi. And she is attractive; she looked good on TV. Trump likes that, too.

But she presided over the Jeffrey Epstein mess, which riled up Trump’s MAGA base. And she couldn’t deliver indictments against Trump’s perceived enemies. Political rivals went after him and he wanted a tough attorney general who would go after them. But when the charges were tossed out of courts and rejected by grand juries, she wound up in the president’s crosshairs. She didn’t get fired because she was too political; she got fired because she wasn’t political enough.

And then there’s Noem, another of the president’s attractive and loyal servants. How loyal? Well, the former governor of South Dakota gave the president a gift: A four-foot tall replica of the state’s most iconic monument, Mount Rushmore, with Trump’s face added to the four presidents whose images are already carved into it. If that’s not loyal, nothing is. But the immigration enforcement battle in Minneapolis turned out to be Noem’s Waterloo.

Did the president want Noem to deploy ICE agents to Minneapolis to go after targets in a state run by progressives who loathe Trump? Sure. But what ICE was doing looked bad on television. That is never a good thing with Trump, who cares very much about how things look on television. Then Noem called two Americans who were shot and killed by ICE agents “domestic terrorists,” infuriating even a lot of conservatives. That was apparently too much for the president.

Now it is time for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — another good-looking Trump favorite, who praised the president every chance he got on Fox News — to start worrying. Hegseth was gung-ho about started the war Trump wanted. But now, a leak from inside the administration has made its way into print, saying Hegseth was “caught off guard” by the intensity of Iran’s response to the war. That may turn out to be nothing. But if — for whatever reason — things go south with Iran, who do you think is going to get the blame? It won’t be Trump.

Yes, Bondi, Noem and Hegseth are all attractive people. Trump likes to be surrounded by people who look good — as long as they don’t make him look bad.

If they do that, their days are numbered — no matter how many times they have told him how wonderful he is.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him @BernardGoldberg.

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