What was supposed to be a celebratory swearing-in for top White House adviser Sergio Gor took an awkward turn Monday, as President Donald Trump publicly threw him under the bus.
The Oval Office ceremony should have been a career highlight for Gor, 38, whom Trump had put in charge of White House hiring before appointing him as U.S. ambassador to India and special envoy to South and Central Asia.
But while Trump began his remarks for Gor by lauding the “key role” he played in the 2024 election and in staffing the new administration, he couldn’t resist mentioning where Gor had fallen short.
“We have had a great team, a couple of mistakes there Sergio, but we won’t mention that,” Trump said, drawing laughter from those in the room. “Thank god, we got rid of them pretty quick. We found a couple we weren’t thrilled with, we got them out of here.”
Trump, 79, appears to be blaming Gor, who oversaw the appointments of thousands of executive-branch staff as the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office until October, for his record-setting number of failed presidential nominations.
Trump has withdrawn more nominees since his return to office than any other president in single a year over the last four decades, according to analysis from Wake Up to Politics writer Gabe Fleisher.
Last month, the White House dropped Paul Ingrassia’s nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel after leaked text messages revealed the 30-year-old White House liaison had allegedly admitted to having a “Nazi streak” and GOP senators revolted.
A few weeks earlier, the White House withdrew Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee E.J. Antoni, a Project 2025 architect, from consideration after his misogynistic and homophobic social media posts were unearthed.
MAGA infighting led another pick, Jared Isaacman, to lose out on his chance of leading NASA in May, before Trump renewed his nomination of the billionaire private astronaut, a friend of Elon Musk.
The Tesla CEO repeatedly lashed out publicly at Gor this summer, apparently blaming him for stoking his falling out with Trump.
Altogether, Trump has seen nearly 50 of his nominations fail this year.
Although the president went on to say he believed Gor would do “an outstanding job” in his new role, he wrapped up with another bizarre tangent that didn’t exactly flatter the adviser.
“I’ve known him for a long time and he’s a great guy and most people love him. Some don’t like him so much. I’ll be honest with you, Sergio,” Trump said. “Some people, when they don’t like Sergio they don’t like him, but when they like him, they like him more than anybody.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
