Ashley Williams, a longtime ally of former President Joe Biden, met with House investigators behind closed doors for nearly six hours Friday as Republicans probe allegations the Democrat’s top aides hid his mental decline.

A source familiar with the transcribed interview told Fox News Digital Williams said she did not ‘recall’ various things ‘an untold number of times.’

‘Examples include she could not recall if she spoke with President Biden in the last week, if teleprompters were used for Cabinet meetings, if there were discussions about President Biden using a wheelchair, if there were discussions about a cognitive test, if she discussed a mental or physical decline of President Biden, if she ever had to wake President Biden up and how she got involved with his 2020 campaign,’ the source said.

Williams told House investigators Biden is fit to be president today, the source said. 

In addition to whether senior aides covered up Biden’s alleged decline, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is looking into whether any presidential orders were signed via autopen without the former commander in chief’s knowledge.

Any allegations of wrongdoing so far have been denied by the ex-president’s allies.

But Republican investigators have pointed to Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate and subsequent revelations in the media that there were more concerns from Biden’s inner circle about his fitness for office than previously known.

Williams, however, argued he was in command of himself during that debate, the source said.

The former White House aide said nothing to reporters when entering or leaving the committee meeting room for her voluntary interview.

Fox News Digital reached out to Williams’ lawyers for their account of events inside the room.

It was a staff-led meeting, but Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, briefly stopped in for just under 30 minutes to show ‘solidarity’ with the witness, the progressive told reporters afterward.

‘I do think that it is important that I show up because if they are going to make allegations about the former commander in chief, egregious allegations they continue to wage, I want to make sure that I’m in the room to correct the record because a lot of times they like to mischaracterize things,’ she said.

When asked by Fox News Digital if the interview was still ongoing as she exited, Crockett answered, ‘It’s still going. I’m leaving early. I’ve got to get to another thing.’ 

The source who spoke with Fox News Digital said Crockett had come in during the GOP’s questioning session and did not ask any questions herself. Fox News Digital reached out to her office for a response.

Williams is a longtime Biden ally whose time with the Democrat goes back to assisting second lady Jill Biden during the Obama administration, according to a 2019 profile of Biden staffers.

Williams later worked for Biden’s 2020 campaign and presidential transition team. She served as his trip director before being hired by the White House as deputy director of Oval Office operations and a special assistant to the president.

Williams ended her White House tenure as deputy assistant to the president, senior advisor to the president and director of strategic outreach, according to her LinkedIn page.

Notably, the social media page also says Williams still works for the ex-leader as senior advisor in the Office of Former President Joe Biden.

She was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee last year during Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s cognitive health, but GOP investigators say the former White House blocked her from giving any information.

The Democratic staffer is the third person to appear before committee investigators in recent weeks.

Former Biden White House physician Kevin O’Connor appeared for a sworn deposition Wednesday after being subpoenaed by Comer.

David Gergen, who worked for four presidents, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, before becoming an academic and political TV pundit, has died. He was 83. 

Gergen died in a retirement home in Massachusetts on July 10, his son said, according to several outlets. 

The Washington, D.C., veteran had been suffering from Lewy body dementia, his son said. 

Those who knew and admired Gergen took to X to express their condolences. 

Former California first lady Maria Shriver wrote on X: ‘David Gergen was total professional and a really kind man. My thoughts are with his family. He loved politics and he loved being in service to this country.’

‘RIP, Mr. Gergen,’ CBS reporter Robert Costa wrote. 

Former Democratic Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. wrote: ‘We lost a good one, a really good one – RIP, my friend David Gergen

Gergen came up with the line that then-candidate Reagan said in the 1980 election: ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ according to The New York Times. 

He later said of the line: ‘Rhetorical questions have great power.’ 

Of his time with the Nixon administration, Gergen told the Washington Post in 1981, ‘I was young, and I was too naive. It hardened me up a lot. It was an extremely difficult experience emotionally, in terms of belief in people.’ 

After leaving public office, Gergen worked as an editor and columnist, as well as for the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was also a commentator for PBS, CNN and NPR. 

‘To say that I rely on him is an understatement,’ Reagan’s White House Chief of Staff, James A. Baker III, told The Washington Post in 1981. ‘He’s the best conceptualizer, in terms of communications strategy, that we have.’

Former White House aide Ashley Williams is the latest ex-Biden administration official to appear in the House Oversight Committee’s probe.

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is investigating allegations that Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back on those claims.

Williams is the third member of Biden’s White House inner circle to show up, though she said nothing to reporters on her way into the room late Friday morning nor during a brief lunch break in the afternoon.

She’s a longtime Biden ally whose time with the Democrat goes back to assisting then-second lady Jill Biden during the Obama administration, according to a 2019 profile of Biden staffers.

Williams later worked for both Biden’s 2020 campaign and presidential transition team. She served as his trip director before being hired to the White House as deputy director of Oval Office Operations and a special assistant to the president.

Williams ended her White House tenure as deputy assistant to the president, senior advisor to the president, and director of Strategic Outreach, according to her LinkedIn page.

Notably, the social media page also says Williams still works for the ex-leader as senior advisor in the Office of Former President Joe Biden.

Williams is a graduate of Georgetown University, and received a doctorate of Law from the University of Pennsylvania. She also got a Master’s degree in political management from George Washington University.

She was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee last year in Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s cognitive health, but GOP investigators say the White House blocked her from giving any information.

‘The Biden White House obstructed the Committee’s investigation and refused to make the aides available for depositions or interviews,’ the committee said in a press release this year.

Williams’ Friday appearance was not forced under subpoena, however. She appeared voluntarily for her closed-door transcribed interview.

The Trump White House waived executive privilege for Williams along with several other former Biden aides last month.

Progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, made a second surprise appearance at the House Oversight Committee’s closed-door discussions with former Biden administration aides this week, once again criticizing President Donald Trump on the way out.

Crockett surprised reporters when she arrived roughly 15 minutes after House investigators’ transcribed interview with former White House advisor Ashley Williams began, declining to speak on the way in.

The Texas Democrat emerged just over 30 minutes later, saying little about what went on inside but telling reporters she still had ‘absolutely’ no concerns about Biden’s mental fitness while in office.

She said it was important to ‘be there physically’ for Biden allies being interviewed in the GOP probe – even going as far as suggesting the Trump administration created a threatening environment for members of Congress and its own political opponents.

‘It is important…in my mind, to be there for these witnesses. Unfortunately, we know what happens when this regime gets going. We know about the threats that come upon them, that come upon us as members of Congress,’ Crockett said.

‘I think it is important to stand there in solidarity and to at least be there physically so that they don’t feel like they’re alone as they are enduring egregious attacks consistently from this administration.’

Crockett was the only lawmaker seen going in or out of Williams’ meeting with investigators on Friday. The transcribed interview was expected to be staff-led, and lawmakers were not required to attend.

‘Right now, the Republicans continue to act as if this is a main priority. Yet none of them are showing up,’ she said.

‘I do think that it is important that I show up because if they are going to make allegations about the former commander-in-chief, egregious allegations they continue to wage. I want to make sure that I’m in the room to correct the record, because a lot of times they like to mischaracterize things.’

When asked by Fox News Digital if the interview was still ongoing as she exited, however, Crockett answered, ‘It’s still going. I’m leaving early. I’ve got to get to another thing.’

A source familiar with the ongoing proceeding told Fox News Digital that Crockett came in during Republican investigators’ round of questioning and so was unable to make inquiries herself. Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett for a response.

Williams was the former Director of Strategic Outreach under the Biden administration. She did not speak to reporters on the way into her transcribed interview.

Crockett initially caught reporters and potentially even staff off guard when she arrived for the closed-door deposition of Biden’s former White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., was there as well, as is the norm for sworn depositions.

Williams, unlike O’Connor, is not on Capitol Hill under subpoena.

During her Wednesday appearance, Crockett declared she never had any concerns about Biden’s mental state while he was president, though she did raise similar claims about Trump.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital in response to Crockett questioning Trump’s mental acuity: ‘The Democrats’ rising star has done more to cement the party’s demise than the President she breathlessly supported, the decrepit and feeble Joe Biden. Jasmine continues to prove she’d be better suited as a reality TV star on VH1 than an elected official on Capitol Hill.’

Comer is investigating accusations that Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back on those claims.

The State Department will move to layoff nearly 2,000 employees on Friday as it begins its reorganization plan. 

An internal memo circulated Thursday evening by Michael Rigas, deputy secretary of management and resources, announced that domestic employees affected by the reduction in force (RIF) would be notified ‘over the coming days.’ 

Approximately 1,800 people will be affected, Fox News has learned. 

The RIF notices plus voluntary departures under the Trump administration amount to a 15% work force reduction. 

‘The departments, bureaus, offices and domestic operations have grown considerably over the last 25 years, and the resulting proliferation of bureaus and offices with unclear, overlapping or duplicative mandates have hobbled the department’s ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats and crises or to effectively advance America’s affirmative interests in the world,’ a senior State Department official said. 

The official added that there are ‘more than 700 domestic offices for 18,000 people.’ 

‘A lot of this, as we said, covers redundant offices and takes some of these cross-cutting functions and moves them to the regional bureaus and to our embassies overseas, to the people who are closest to where diplomacy is happening, to empower them with the resources and authorities they need to be able to carry out the President’s foreign policy.’

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce warned on Thursday the agency would move quickly after the Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s injunction blocking the administration from implementing widescale force reductions across federal agencies. 

A senior official said there are currently no plans for overseas closures of embassies and outposts. They added the State Department will work to preserve the dignity of affected workers. 

‘We’re going to work to preserve the dignity of federal workers,’ the official said. ‘We want to be sensitive to that process and make sure people have the resources they need … and make sure everyone is treated with dignity.’

A former White House physician is criticizing Kevin O’Connor after the ex-Biden administration doctor refused to answer questions by House Oversight Committee investigators earlier this week.

Dr. O’Connor, who served as White House physician to former President Joe Biden, sat down for a transcribed interview with committee staff and panel Chair James Comer, R-Ky., on Wednesday. The closed-door meeting lasted roughly 30 minutes, with O’Connor invoking the Fifth Amendment to all questions, save for his name.

His legal team said there were concerns the broad scope of Comer’s probe could force O’Connor into a position of risking doctor-patient confidentiality privileges. 

‘Well, you can’t do both,’ Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House doctor himself, told Fox News Digital in an interview afterward.

‘I mean, the Fifth Amendment is designed to keep him from incriminating himself in some type of, you know, criminal or unethical behavior. He’d already addressed the issue of patient-doctor privacy, or confidentiality, with the committee.’

He pointed out that O’Connor’s lawyers had already raised issues with patient-doctor confidentiality in a letter to the committee trying to get the interview delayed, but Comer pressed forward.

‘They had already let him know that in this particular case, because he had been subpoenaed, and it was a legal process, he’d been subpoenaed to testify before Congress in this closed session, that the patient-doctor privilege no longer applied,’ Jackson said. ‘And President Trump had waived presidential privilege. So it left him with nothing. Nothing to stand on except for pleading the Fifth.’

Before being elected to Congress, Jackson served as White House physician to both former President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump.

Comer told reporters on Wednesday that Jackson played a key role in crafting questions for O’Connor. 

‘We have a lot of questions that we’ve prepared for this. We’ve consulted closely with Ronny Jackson, my colleague, who was the White House physician in the first Trump administration. We’ve consulted with a lot of people in the medical community, so there’s going to be a lot of medical questions that are asked,’ he told reporters before the transcribed interview.

He is investigating accusations that Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back on those claims.

‘The cover-up could not have happened without the assistance and the help of his personal physician, Kevin O’Connor,’ Jackson said. ‘I think that’s why he pled the Fifth, because he realized he was about to implicate himself as a key player in this cover-up.’

O’Connor’s lawyers have denied any implications of guilt.

Jackson said some of the questions he recommended to the committee would have surrounded any potential neurological concerns or cognitive tests while Biden was in office.

But many of those were left unasked, it appears, after O’Connor’s brief meeting with House investigators.

The doctor’s lawyers said O’Connor’s refusal to answer questions on Fifth Amendment grounds was not an admission of guilt, but rather a response to what they saw as an unprecedented investigatory scope that could have violated the bounds of patient-physician privilege.

‘This Committee has indicated to Dr. O’Connor and his attorneys that it does not intend to honor one of the most well-known privileges in our law – the physician patient privilege. Instead, the Committee has indicated that it will demand that Dr. O’Connor reveal, without any limitations, confidential information regarding his medical examinations, treatment, and care of President Biden,’ the attorney statement said.

‘Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O’Connor’s medical license, and would subject Dr. O’Connor to potential civil liability. Dr. O’Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.’

Fox News Digital reached out to O’Connor’s lawyers for further comment.

I wrote recently about the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has drawn the ire of colleagues in opinions for her rhetoric and extreme positions. Many have expressed alarm over her adherence to what has been described by one as an ‘imperial judiciary’ model of jurisprudence. Now, it appears that Jackson’s increasingly controversial opinions are serving a certain cathartic purpose for the far-left Biden appointee.

‘I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues, and that’s what I try to do,’ Jackson told ABC News.

Her colleagues have not entirely welcomed that sense of license. The histrionic and hyperbolic rhetoric has increased in Jackson’s opinions, which at times portray her colleagues as abandoning not just the Constitution but democracy itself.

Her dissent in the recent ruling on universal injunctions drew the rebuke of Justice Amy Coney Barrett over what was described as ‘a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush.’

‘We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,’ Barrett wrote. ‘We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.’

Jackson, however, clearly feels that opinions are a way for her to opine on issues of the day. 

She is not alone. Across the country, liberal judges have been adding their own commentary to decisions in order to condemn Trump, his supporters, and his policies.

I previously wrote about this pattern of extrajudicial commentary.

District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who previously presided over Trump’s election interference case, was criticized for failing to recuse herself from that case after she made highly controversial statements about Trump from the bench. Chutkan lashed out at ‘a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.’ That ‘one person’ was still under investigation at the time, and when Trump was charged, Chutkan refused to let the case go.

Later, Chutkan again added her own commentary when asked to dismiss a case due to Trump pardoning January 6 defendants. She acknowledged that she could not block the pardons, but proclaimed that the pardons could not change the ‘tragic truth’ and ‘cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.’

One of Chutkan’s colleagues, Judge Beryl Howell, also an Obama appointee, lashed out at Trump’s actions, writing, ‘[T]his Court cannot let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement.’

Then there is Judge Amit Mehta, another Obama appointee, who has been criticized for conflicted rulings in Trump cases and his bizarre (and ultimately abandoned) effort to banish January 6 defendants from the Capitol.

Last week, Mehta had a straightforward question of jurisdiction concerning a challenge to the denial of grants by the Trump administration. While correctly dismissing the challenge, Mehta decided to add his own commentary on Trump’s priorities and policies:

‘Defendants’ rescinding of these awards is shameful. It is likely to harm communities and individuals vulnerable to crime and violence. But displeasure and sympathy are not enough in a court of law.’

For Jackson, her opinions have at times left her isolated on the Court. Weeks ago, Jackson and Sotomayor were alone in dissent over the defiance of a district court judge of the Court’s decision on universal injunctions. To her credit, Justice Elena Kagan (who voted with Sotomayor and Jackson in dissent in the earlier case) voted with her conservative colleagues in rebuking Judge Brian Murphy in Boston.

Kagan joined in the reversal of Murphy’s conflicting order and wrote the new order ‘clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial.’

This week, Jackson lost even Sotomayor and stood alone in her dissent in support of an injunction over plans to downsize the government. Sotomayor observed that the Trump order only directed agencies to plan for such downsizing and said that the courts could hardly enjoin such policy preparations in the Executive Branch.

However, Jackson could and would. 

The controversial position of Jackson on the Court is not due to her liberal views. We have had many such liberal jurists. The difference is how Jackson views her role as a justice.

The danger is not confined to opinions. For years, justices have yielded to the temptations of public speaking before supportive groups. I have long been a critic of what I called the era of ‘celebrity justices,’ where members seem to maintain political constituencies at public events. 

Such speeches not only undermine the integrity of the Court by discussing matters that may come before it, but they can create a desire to maintain the adoration of supporters. The greatest danger is that justices will consciously or subconsciously pander to their bases with soundbites and inflammatory rhetoric.

Judicial advocacy from the bench has been a concern since the founding. Article III can have a corrosive impact on certain jurists who come to view themselves as anointed rather than appointed. Most judges and justices are acutely aware of that danger and struggle to confine their rulings to the merits of disputes, avoiding political questions or commentary.

The ‘opportunity to tell people how I feel’ can become a slippery slope where opinions become more like judicial op-eds. The Court is not a cable show. The price of the ticket to being ‘one of nine’ is that you should speak only through your opinions and only on the narrow legal matter before you. 

Opinions must remain ‘opportunities’ to do simple justice, not a supreme editorial.

A former top White House advisor is slated to appear before House Oversight Committee investigators on Friday as GOP lawmakers probe whether ex-President Joe Biden’s top aides covered up evidence of his mental and physical decline.

Ashley Williams, who served as deputy director of Oval Office Operations during the Biden administration, is expected to sit with investigators behind closed doors for a transcribed interview around 11 a.m. Friday.

If she appears, Williams will be the third member of the former president’s White House inner circle summoned in Comer’s probe in recent weeks.

In addition to whether senior aides covered up Biden’s alleged decline, Comer is looking at whether any presidential orders were signed via autopen without the former commander-in-chief’s knowledge.

Any allegations of wrongdoing so far have been denied by the ex-president’s allies.

But Republican investigators have pointed to Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate and subsequent revelations in the media that there were more concerns from Biden’s inner circle about his fitness for office than previously known.

Williams was one of three then-Biden aides called before Comer’s House Oversight Committee in July 2024 to discuss the former president’s mental state, but the White House at the time called it a ‘baseless political stunt’ to NBC News.

Her expected appearance on Friday comes two days after ex-Biden White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor briefly sat down with investigators on Wednesday.

O’Connor’s encounter with the committee lasted roughly 30 minutes, with the doctor invoking the Fifth Amendment for all questions except his name.

‘It’s clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment,’ Comer said in a statement after O’Connor’s appearance.

‘Dr. O’Connor took the Fifth when asked if he was told to lie about President Biden’s health and whether he was fit to be President of the United States. Congress must assess legislative solutions to prevent such a cover up from happening again. We will continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve.’

O’Connor’s lawyers said he did so out of concerns that House investigators would violate doctor-patient privilege.

‘This Committee has indicated to Dr. O’Connor and his attorneys that it does not intend to honor one of the most well-known privileges in our law – the physician patient privilege. Instead, the Committee has indicated that it will demand that Dr. O’Connor reveal, without any limitations, confidential information regarding his medical examinations, treatment, and care of President Biden,’ the attorney statement said.

‘Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O’Connor’s medical license, and would subject Dr. O’Connor to potential civil liability. Dr. O’Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.’

The State Department informed U.S.-based employees on Thursday that it would soon begin laying off nearly 2,000 workers after the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to move forward with mass job cuts as part of its efforts to downsize the federal workforce.

The agency’s reorganization plan was first unveiled in April by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to eliminate functions and offices the department considered to be redundant. In February, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing Rubio to revamp the foreign service to ensure that the president’s foreign policy is ‘faithfully’ implemented.

Employees affected by the agency’s ‘reduction in force’ would be notified soon, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Michael Rigas told employees in an email on Thursday.

‘First and foremost, we want to thank them for their dedication and service to the United States,’ Rigas said in the email.

‘Every effort has been made to support our colleagues who are departing, including those who opted into the Deferred Resignation Programs … On behalf of Department leadership, we extend our gratitude for your hard work and commitment to executing this reorganization and for your ongoing dedication to advancing U.S. national interests across the world,’ he added.

The department did not specify on Thursday how many people would be fired, but in its plans to Congress sent in May, it had proposed laying off about 1,800 employees of the 18,000 estimated domestic workforce. Another 1,575 were estimated to have taken deferred resignations.

The plans to Congress did not state how many of these workers would be from the civil service and how many from the foreign service, but it did say that more than 300 of the department’s 734 bureaus and offices would be streamlined, merged or eliminated.

Once affected staff have been notified, the department ‘will enter the final stage of its reorganization and focus its attention on delivering results-driven diplomacy,’ Rigas said in the email to colleagues.

The expectation is for the terminations to start as soon as Friday.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters earlier on Thursday that the only reason there had been a delay in implementing force reductions is because the courts have stepped in, as she said the mass layoffs would be happening quickly.

‘There has been a delay – not to our interests, but because of the courts,’ Bruce noted. ‘It’s been difficult when you know you need to get something done for the benefit of everyone.’

‘When something is too large to operate, too bureaucratic, to actually function, and to deliver projects, or action, it has to change,’ she said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The Trump administration has repeatedly assigned additional job roles to Cabinet members and other officials amid government shake-ups as the president solidifies his agenda for the coming years, Fox News Digital found. 

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was the latest Trump official to be charged with an additional role on June 9. The Transportation chief and Trump ally now also serves as the administration’s acting NASA administrator, after the president pulled a former nominee’s name from consideration to lead NASA. 

Duffy, however, is not alone in taking on multiple roles within Trump’s second administration. Fox News Digital looked back on the various Trump Cabinet members and officials who have or are currently wearing multiple hats as the president works to realign the federal government to track with his ‘America First’ policies. 

Sean Duffy 

Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, was tapped to oversee the Department of Transportation and was confirmed by the Senate on Jan. 28. Since his confirmation, Duffy has juggled a handful of crises related to tragic plane crashes — including the Potomac River mid-air collision on Jan. 29 — and air traffic control issues that plagued New Jersey’s Liberty International Airport earlier this year. 

Trump posted to Truth Social on Wednesday evening that Duffy would also serve as interim chief of NASA. 

‘I am pleased to announce that I am directing our GREAT Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, to be Interim Administrator of NASA,’ Trump wrote in his announcement. 

‘Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country’s Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again. He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time. Congratulations, and thank you, Sean!’

Duffy replaced Janet Petro, who has served as acting NASA administrator since Trump’s inauguration. The president had previously nominated an Elon Musk ally named Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, but pulled his nomination in June as Trump’s and Musk’s relationship hit the rocks over the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’

‘Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch,’ Duffy posted to X of the new role. 

Marco Rubio 

Rubio and the Trump administration came under fire from Democrats for the secretary of state holding multiple high-profile roles in the second administration, including Democrats sounding off on the national security council shake-up on Sunday news shows. 

‘There’s no way he can do that and do it well, especially since there’s such incompetence over at DOD with Pete Hegseth being secretary of defense and just the hollowing out of the top leadership,’ Illinois Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘There’s no way he can carry all that entire load on his own.’

‘I don’t know how anybody could do these two big jobs,’ Democrat Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Sunday on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’

Rubio’s roles in the administration include leading the State Department; serving as acting archivist of the United States after Trump ousted a Biden-era appointee; serving as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development as the admin works to dissolve the independent agency by September; and taking the helm as the interim national security advisor. Rubio’s role overseeing USAID concluded at the start of July when the State Department officially absorbed the agency. 

When asked about the trend of Trump officials wearing multiple work hats back in May, the White House reflected in comment to Fox News Digital on former President Joe Biden’s ‘disaster of a Cabinet.’ 

‘Democrats cheered on Joe Biden’s disaster of a Cabinet as it launched the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, opened the southern border to migrant criminals, weaponized the justice system against political opponents, and more,’ White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital in May. ‘President Trump has filled his administration with many qualified, talented individuals he trusts to manage many responsibilities.’ 

The Trump administration has repeatedly brushed off concern over Rubio holding multiple roles, most notably juggling both his State Department leadership and serving as acting national security advisor. Similarly, former President Richard Nixon in 1973 named then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to simultaneously serve as secretary of state. 

‘You need a team player who is very honest with the president and the senior team, not someone trying to build an empire or wield a knife or drive their own agenda. He is singularly focused on delivering the president’s agenda,’ an administration official told Politico. 

Despite Democratic rhetoric that Rubio was taking on too many roles, the former Florida senator helped oversee the U.S.’ successful strikes on Iran in June, which destroyed a trio of nuclear facilities and decimated the country’s efforts to advance its nuclear program. 

Kash Patel

FBI Director Kash Patel, who railed against the ‘deep state’ and vowed to strip corruption from the federal law enforcement agency ahead of his confirmation, was briefly charged with overseeing the of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in February after the Biden-era director resigned in January. 

Patel was later replaced by Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll as acting ATF director in a job change that was publicly reported in April. 

‘Director Kash Patel was briefly designated ATF director while awaiting Senate confirmations, a standard, short-term move. Dozens of similar re-designations have occurred across the federal government,’ the White House told Reuters in April. ‘Director Patel is now excelling in his role at the FBI and delivering outstanding results.’

Daniel Driscoll 

Driscoll was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army in February. The secretary of the army is a senior-level civilian official charged with overseeing the management of the Army and also acts as an advisor to the secretary of defense in matters related to the Army. 

It was reported in April that Driscoll was named acting ATF director, replacing Patel in that role. 

‘Mr. Driscoll is responsible for the oversight of the agency’s mission to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, and the illegal trafficking of firearms, explosives, and contraband. Under his leadership, the ATF works to enforce federal laws, ensure public safety, and provide critical support in the investigation of firearms-related crimes and domestic and international criminal enterprises,’ his ATF biography reads. 

Ahead of Trump taking office, Republican Reps. Eric Burlison of Missouri and Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced legislation to abolish the ATF, saying the agency has worked to strip Second Amendment rights from U.S. citizens. 

The ATF has been tasked with assisting the Department of Homeland Security in its deportation efforts under the Trump administration. 

Doug Collins 

Former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins was sworn-in as the Trump administration’s secretary of Veterans Affairs in February, a Cabinet-level position tasked with overseeing the department and its mission of providing health, education and financial benefits to military veterans. 

Days after his confirmation as VA secretary, Trump tapped Collins to temporarily lead two oversight agencies: the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Special Counsel. 

The Office of Government Ethics is charged with overseeing the executive branch’s ethics program, including setting ethics standards for the government and monitoring ethics compliance across federal agencies and departments. 

The Office of Special Counsel is charged with overseeing and protecting the federal government’s merit system, most notably ensuring federal whistleblowers don’t face retaliation for sounding the alarm on an issue they’ve experienced. The office also has an established secure channel to allow federal employees to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing. 

The Office of Special Counsel also enforces the Hatch Act, which bans executive branch staffers, except the president and vice president, from engaging in certain forms of political activity. 

Jamieson Greer 

Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, has also been tapped for multiple roles within the administration, in addition to help leading the administration’s tariff negotiations to bring parity to the U.S.’ chronic trade deficit with other nations. 

Greer took on Collins’ roles as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics and as acting special counsel of the Office of Special Counsel on April 1. 

Trump nominated conservative attorney Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel in May. 

Russell Vought 

Trump named his former director of the Office of Management and Budget under his first administration, Russell Vought, to the same role in his second administration. Vought was confirmed as the federal government’s budget chief in February. 

Days later, Vought was also named the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  

The CFPB is an independent government agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair financial practices in the private sector. It was created in 2010 under the Obama administration after the financial crash in 2008. Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren originally proposed and advocated for the creation of the agency.

The CFPB came under fierce investigation from the Department of Government Efficiency in February, with mass terminations rocking the agency before the reduction in force initiative was tied up in court. 

Ric Grenell 

President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under his first term, a pair of roles held at separate times in the first administration, currently serves as president of the Kennedy Center and special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States. 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. Trump notably serves as the center’s chair of the board, with Grenell saying the center will see a ‘golden age’ of the arts during Trump’s second administration through productions and concerts that Americans actually want to see after years of the performing arts center running in the red. 

Trump named Grenell as his special presidential envoy for special missions to the United States in December before his inauguration, saying Grenell will ‘work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea.’

In this role, Grenell helped lead the administration through its response to the wildfires that tore through Southern California in the last days of the Biden administration through the beginning days of the Trump administration. 

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.