Rep. Carter to Newsmax: Bondi ‘Did a Great Job,’ Trump Has Right to Fire

President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi drew a quick defense Friday from Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who told Newsmax the president was within his authority to remove a Cabinet official while praising Bondi’s record in advancing the administration’s agenda.

Speaking on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” the morning after Trump made the move official, Carter said he could not say with certainty what drove the president’s final decision, but stressed that Bondi served “at the pleasure of the president.”

“Well, I’m not sure exactly what his final determination was, but let’s face it, members of the Cabinet, they serve at the pleasure of the president,” Carter said. “So it’s certainly his right to make changes when he feels like they need to be made.”

Trump removed Bondi on Thursday and named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as acting attorney general while the White House weighs a permanent replacement. The Justice Department says the deputy attorney general is authorized to exercise the powers of the attorney general and act in that role in the attorney general’s absence.

Bondi’s ouster followed weeks of scrutiny, including bipartisan criticism over the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related files, an issue that had become a recurring political challenge for the administration.

Newsmax reported in March that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee walked out of a closed-door briefing on the Epstein files and demanded that Bondi answer questions under oath.

Carter, however, framed Bondi’s tenure as a success and suggested she would remain aligned with Trump even outside government.

“But I will say this: Pam Bondi did a great job of advancing America First policy,” Carter said. “She did a great job of reestablishing the rule of law that had been largely ignored by the Biden-Harris administration. And she made America safer again. And I’m sure she’ll continue to fight and work for this administration, even in the private sector.”

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and longtime Trump ally, had served about 14 months before Thursday’s dismissal, according to published reports. Her departure marks another high-level shake-up in Trump’s second administration.

Blanche, who had been serving as deputy attorney general, previously represented Trump in his New York criminal case and was nominated by the president in January 2025 to the No. 2 position at the Justice Department.

No permanent successor had been announced as of Friday morning, though several names were already circulating in Republican circles as possible nominees, according to reports.

Bondi said after the firing that she was “thrilled” about her next move and called serving in the post “the honor of a lifetime,” signaling that she planned to remain publicly supportive of Trump despite the abrupt end to her tenure.

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