Top Trump policy adviser Joe Grogan to leave post

Joe Grogan, head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, intends to leave his position at the end of May. 

A White House official confirmed Grogan’s planned departure, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Grogan told the Journal that he was leaving the White House on good terms with President Trump and that he planned to leave the position on May 24, having stayed in the role longer than he anticipated.

Grogan’s departure had been rumored as a possibility for weeks, particularly following the arrival of Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman, as Trump’s fourth chief of staff.

“I had a great conversation with the president and a great conversation with Meadows,” Grogan told the Journal in an interview published Wednesday evening.

Grogan has served as the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council since February 2019, overseeing a broad array of policy issues including health care and regulation. 

Before that, he worked as a top health care official in the Office of Management and Budget beginning in 2017 and was a close ally of Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s third chief of staff, whom Meadows replaced in March. Grogan worked as a lobbyist for drug company Gilead Sciences before joining the Trump administration.

Grogan’s departure marks the latest staffing change at the White House amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Trump replaced press secretary Stephanie Grisham with Kayleigh McEnany, a top campaign spokeswoman, earlier this month as part of a broader makeover of the communications team executed by Meadows.

Grogan was one of the original members of the White House coronavirus task force launched in late January. It was not immediately clear who would replace him as head of the Domestic Policy Council.