CNN Politics - Donald Trump is losing Cabinet officials at a record rate

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(CNN) The word out of the White House is that anyone not directly related to Donald Trump could be on the chopping block as this most mercurial of presidents seethes and stews over the midterm setback for his party last week and his broader grievances that he is not being well-served by his staff.

 

The latest: Trump has decided he wants Kirstjen Nielsen, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, gone - although it's unclear when she will go.

Thrown into that mix is the fact that White House chief of staff John Kelly is very close to Nielsen

 

Consider this: nine (!) Cabinet official have already left the Trump administration less than two years into his presidency.

 

That equals the number of Cabinet officials who left in then-President Barack Obama's entire first four years in office.

 

In George W. Bush's first term in office, only four Cabinet members left.

 

The only recent president who saw more Cabinet departures in his first four years in office than Trump has overseen in his first less-than-two is Bill Clinton, who lost 12 Cabinet officials in his first term.

 

Trump views everyone outside of his immediate family as expendable.

 

For a President who values making history and always having (or saying he has) the biggest and the best, Trump can take comfort in this fact: When it comes to people leaving his administration, he's at the top of the heap.

 

Since when did unelected family members have the power to fire senior officials?