The White House is defending the recent departure of top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns that the exits signaled deeper instability within the administration.
CDC Director Susan Monarez left her post after just weeks on the job, sparking criticism that the Trump administration was forcing out senior health leaders who clashed with its agenda. At a Thursday briefing, Leavitt was asked whether more resignations were expected.
“Not to my knowledge,” she said. “I understand there were a few other individuals who resigned after the firing of Ms. Monarez. One of those individuals wrote in his departure statement that he identifies pregnant women as pregnant people, so that’s not someone we want in this administration anyway.”
Her comments referred to Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned Wednesday as director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Daskalakis, an outspoken LGBTQ advocate, was one of at least four senior officials who left after Monarez’s ouster.
Sharing his resignation letter on X, Daskalakis wrote, “Enough is enough.” He accused the administration of using the CDC “to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”
He also criticized recent changes to the national immunization schedule. “The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threatens the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people,” he wrote. “The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership.”
Conservatives quickly seized on his use of “pregnant people,” a phrase Leavitt also highlighted in her briefing. “If people are not aligned with the president’s vision and the secretary’s vision to make our country healthy again, then we will gladly show them the door,” she said.
Meanwhile, Monarez’s attorneys accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. of “weaponizing public health for political gain” and punishing experts who refused to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives.” They argued that only the president had the authority to remove her and that she had not resigned.
Leavitt countered, saying Monarez “was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again, and the secretary asked her to resign,” before adding that Trump himself ultimately fired her. A replacement, she said, would be named “very soon.”
On Thursday, hundreds of CDC employees rallied outside the agency’s Atlanta headquarters in solidarity with departing officials. Some wore stickers reading “save CDC,” while others held signs of support. Former leaders warned the agency risked being steered down a “dangerous path.”