Public Citizen Report Finds Trump Removed More Inspectors General Than All Prior Presidents Combined

A Public Citizen report released in March 2026 documented that President Trump had removed more inspectors general than all other presidents of the United States combined, leaving a critical gap in government accountability and ethics oversight. More than 75% of presidentially appointed inspector general positions had been left vacant.

Trump had initially fired 17 inspectors general in a mass termination on January 24, 2025, notifying them via email citing “changing priorities.” A federal judge ruled in September 2025 that the terminations were unlawful but declined to reinstate the fired officials, noting that Trump could simply re-fire them after providing the congressionally mandated 30-day notice. The administration subsequently continued removing inspectors general, including the Inspector General of the Export-Import Bank.

The fired inspectors general – the independent watchdogs created specifically to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse within federal agencies – had collectively issued public warnings about the profound lack of oversight resulting from their removal. They were suing the administration for unlawful termination. With over three-quarters of IG positions vacant or filled with acting officials loyal to the administration, the structural capacity to investigate executive branch misconduct had been substantially eliminated.

Legal scholars and good-government groups characterized the mass removal of inspectors general as a deliberate strategy to blind the oversight apparatus – ensuring that corruption, misuse of funds, and abuse of power within federal agencies would go uninvestigated and unreported. The scale of the removals was without historical precedent.