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A photo shared online shows Attorney General Pam Bondi's framed portrait that previously hung near President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the Justice Department offices thrown in a trash bin, MS NOW reports.
Current and former DOJ officials who spoke to MS NOW said the incident reflects Bondi's unpopularity with career officials and agents, thousands of whom were reported to have left their positions and dozens more who were forced out during her tenure. Trump reportedly told Bondi that her time in the position was coming to an end as they rode from the White House to the Supreme Court one day prior to her firing being announced publicly, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I think it’s time,” Trump allegedly told Bondi as they traveled across Washington, D.C., for oral arguments of a birthright citizenship case on Wednesday (April 1). Bondi had reportedly asked Trump if she could remain at her post until the summer, a request the president denied, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Bondi's tenure in the Trump administration had been discussed since the beginning of the year as the president expressed dissatisfaction with the pace in which she was moving on his agenda, according to the report. Bondi's termination was based on "a steady drip of frustrations," including her handling of the Epstein files and the lack of positive news coverage directed at the Department of Justice during her tenure, which began in February 2025.
Bondi was reportedly present at the White House through the evening, attending Trump's primetime address to the nation on the Iran war, despite being told of her firing earlier on Wednesday. Trump confirmed that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would temporarily serve as acting attorney general while the president decided on a full-time replacement.
“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account Thursday (April 2).