Republican operatives who have worked within and in support of President Donald Trump‘s administrations do not expect U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro to be fired after the president accused her of mishandling cases involving alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Pirro met with Trump on Monday at the White House, but it does not appear that the president asked for her resignation, even as rumors abound that he is considering removing her from office, and after she was spotted leaving the West Wing wheeling a box and a briefcase.
Instead, sources familiar with the situation pointed to Trump’s history of dropping past animosity with Republicans who appease him as one reason Pirro still has a shot of lasting beyond this week’s tenuous moment.
“If you do something to prove your loyalty, he will generally let you back in the circle,” one Republican who previously worked for Trump said. “So if she were to refile the charges or make some big public statement, she could probably save herself.”
Pirro filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against former Olympian David Hearn, accused of vandalizing the renovated Reflecting Pool, on Friday, leading to heated words from Trump. The multimillion-dollar renovation has been riddled with flawed installation, green algae bloom in the water, and alleged acts of vandalism from the beginning.
“I think she choked because the judge was really vicious,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. “Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
The president was especially incensed over Pirro blaming the tears in the pool’s liner on “flawed installation by the contractor.”
“We did a great job,” he said. “We got very expensive material to put on top of the surface that always leaked because it was stone.”
But another Republican close to the White House said they do not think Pirro will be dismissed.
“This is a slap on the hand because she is tough on crime and has other victories under her belt in D.C.,” the Republican said.
Pirro could likely make the case to Trump that, under her leadership, major crime drops in Washington have occurred. Through the Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Initiative, 8,406 arrests and 856 illegal guns were removed from the streets in 2025. Homicides were also down 60%, robberies down 49%, carjackings down 68%, and overall crime down 32% compared to the same time in 2024.
FBI Director Kash Patel is probably a good example of another high-up Trump official who has outlasted rumors of being dismissed by Trump by appealing to the president’s good graces, one source familiar told the Washington Examiner. Reports of Patel’s drinking behavior do not appear to have ultimately made a difference with Trump, as the White House repeatedly defended the FBI director.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth has also faced scrutiny over increasing funding for the ongoing Iran war, the leak of sensitive military plans to a journalist last year, and the repeated U.S. strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean Sea. Yet Trump has continued to stand by Hegseth, who remains loyal to the president.
In a notable departure from his first term, Trump has been reluctant to fire members of his administration hastily, which could benefit Pirro. The president has tended to defend members of his team first before later dismissing them or assigning them to other jobs, for example, now-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and special envoy for the Shield of the Americas Kristi Noem.
PIRRO THROWS DROPS CHARGES IN THREE MORE REFLECTING POOL VANDALISM CASES AMID TRUMP OUTRAGE
“It is almost impossible for someone to function credibly once it’s clear they’ve fallen out of favor,” GOP strategist Dennis Lennox said. “That said, Trump has a long history of breakups and reconciliations. Whether someone bounces back depends less on the initial disagreement than on whether Trump ultimately sees value in bringing them back into the fold.”
Regardless, there have still been some high-profile departures this term, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi and onetime Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, both of whom attributed their leaving the administration to cancer. Bondi was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Gabbard’s husband, Abraham Williams, is fighting a rare form of bone cancer.