Key Trump legislative adviser to depart with potentially bruising midterm looming
By Alayna Treene, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s director of legislative affairs is expected to depart the White House in the coming weeks, a Trump administration official told CNN on Wednesday.
James Braid has served as the president’s top liaison between the West Wing and Capitol Hill throughout Trump’s second term. His plans to leave the role less than three months before the midterm elections could complicate any final legislating the White House has planned.
The official told CNN Braid is expected to take on a new role in the private sector.
Braid has been crucial to the White House’s lobbying efforts in Congress, specifically in wrangling lawmakers to get behind Trump’s more controversial legislative agenda items.
“James Braid, our Director of Legislative Affairs, will be leaving the White House in September,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday morning, praising him for playing “a critical role in our many accomplishments with Congress.”
Braid, 35, had worked closely with then-Sen. JD Vance before he was selected as Trump’s vice president. His strong ties to Capitol Hill are widely credited by White House officials as helping Trump notch his congressional wins, such as passing the president’s sweeping “one big beautiful bill” of tax cuts.
Braid’s expected exit comes amid another high-profile departure in the Trump administration.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that she will leave her role at the end of August.
Her departure as one of the president’s closest allies inside the White House marks a major shakeup for the president’s press operation.
Trump said that Leavitt will continue to serve as an outside adviser.
The two key departures come at a challenging moment for Trump, who’s facing low approval ratings amid the ongoing war with Iran and high gas prices, with most Americans saying he hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.
On Thursday, Vance praised Braid, whom he said had “one of the toughest jobs in the entire Administration.”
“Not only is James brilliant, he is one of the hardest workers you will ever meet,” Vance wrote on X, adding, “Very excited to see what he does next.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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