When President Donald Trump won re-election, Harrison Fields had no intention of joining him at the White House again.
Just married and with a newborn daughter, Fields and his wife had just purchased a home in Florida and were looking forward to a slower pace away from DC after a frenetic election season.
Then came a call from an old colleague and friend – one he couldn’t say no to.
Fields had worked with Karoline Leavitt during Trump’s first term, when she was assistant press secretary.
So it made sense that, once Leavitt was elevated to the role of press secretary at age 27 – the youngest person ever to be appointed to the role – she wanted someone she could trust to help professionalize her shop.
Fields took up the role as her deputy press secretary as well as special assistant to the president in Trump’s White House 2.0.
Typically, his was a job that can lead to the top press secretary position, but almost as soon as he was finding his feet, Fields declared last week that he was ready to move on.
He is leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the GOP lobbying and public affairs firm CGCN – a vivid reminder that the ‘revolving door’ from White House to K Street, DC’s private lobbying sector – is alive and well.
He’s not the only one.
Four other aides announced this month that they are ending their White House service to dive into the private sector in what’s been seen as an early rush to capitalize on their extraordinary and prized access on K Street and in the wider consulting arena.
It’s also an opportunity to make a lot more money.
Those exiting include Fields; Trent Morse, deputy director of presidential personnel; former White House crypto policy executive, Bo Hines; director of digital content, Billy McLaughlin; and May Davis Mailman, deputy assistant to the president.
Fields was on a White House salary of $139,500. His new CGCN paycheck will likely double that – or more.
It is worth noting that these departures are only a trickle so far, nothing like the tsunami of exits that roiled the first Trump administration.
Back then, Trump suffered a nearly 92 percent turnover rate among top White House advisors according to Brookings, with 45 percent of positions seeing more than two occupants during the four years.
Six months into the first administration, a dozen senior aides had quit, as part of a dramatic shakeup. In Trump’s second term, however, the number stands at just five.
‘I look forward to continuing to support the MAGA movement in a new, deeply rewarding, and impactful capacity,’ Fields told the Daily Mail.
Morse is launching his own lobbying shop, Morse Strategies, after making $175,000 at the White House. Mailman, who earned $155,000, is returning to Houston to expand her family, with plans to start her own government affairs firm.
In some instances, it’s hard to see the timing as coincidental.
Former White House crypto policy executive Bo Hines has jumped to cryptocurrency firm Tether, immediately after Trump’s signing of the GENIUS Act regulating digital currencies. Hines will surely put Tether ahead in the ongoing crypto gold rush.
‘While the revolving door is hardly a novel phenomenon under Trump, it does matter more than ever because the federal government is evolving more rapidly than at any time since World War II,’ said Jeff Hauser, executive director at Revolving Door Project, a think tank that scrutinizes executive branch appointees.
The unique, loyal and personal relationships that drive Trump world, Hauser said, offered an ‘incredible boost’ to corporations seeking to engage the West Wing.
A job on K Street with White House connections can easily double your salary and there are significant perks for those starting their own policy, strategy, and communications firms.
But unlike the dramatic departures of Trump’s first term, these exits are driven by lifestyle choices as much as financial opportunity.
The White House is filled with many young employees that have already gotten married and started their families, and the job is not an easy one.
‘Of course it has an impact on family. We’re all going through it – wake up early, go to bed late, grind, grind, grind,’ a White House staffer told the Daily Mail, even as they view the job as one they are ‘proud and honored’ to perform.
Sometimes White House staffers view early exits with suspicion, a betrayal of the president and others in the administration who have committed to working all four years. But others in the building understand the demands of family.
Mailman was living in Houston, Texas when she was called up and asked to come back and serve in Trump’s second term.
In Trump’s first term, she had served all four years – from his first day in office to the last day. Now she had two kids, a two-year-old, a one-year-old. Her husband had already had a job in Houston and their family had already settled in the city.
Rather than uproot the entire family, May decided to commute to Washington for a limited stint at the White House.
The sacrifice was immense. She would get on a flight every Sunday and fly from Houston to Washington, DC.
‘Leaving is an emotional experience,’ she told the Daily Mail.
After working a week at the White House, Mailman would get on a flight on Friday and be back with her family by Saturday.
It was only temporary, Mailman told her family, as she agreed to help get everything set up in the White House policy shop before leaving.
But Mailman also had another reason for leaving. She is 30 weeks pregnant, and it was time to stop boarding planes.
‘The realities of life, like living with my family and having my third child, made this transition an apparent and necessary one,’ Mailman said.
White House Director of Digital Content Billy McLaughlin had left his own digital public relations firm to work for the president to help set up a new system for generating ‘banger memes’ for the president.
But after the passage of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, he felt it the right time to make a transition back to his firm.
McLaughlin already helped generate billions of views for Trump’s agenda and added 16 million new followers for the White House digital accounts.
Although Democrats tried to spin that McLaughlin’s departure was the result of a controversial debut of the White House on TikTok on Wednesday, he laughed off their efforts to churn controversy.
Most departing Trump staffers know their exit doesn’t mean the end of their work for the president’s movement.
Trump world expects Fields to remain active on television – the president had already praised him after catching his weekend Fox News appearances. Mailman will transition to a special government employee to finish White House projects while building her firm. McLaughlin plans to keep promoting Trump digitally from the outside.
‘We’ll keep crushing digital. Democrats will keep sucking at it,’ he said.
The message is clear: in Trump’s second term, the revolving door isn’t about escaping chaos – it’s about seizing a wealth of opportunity.
‘While it is now commonplace, it is still concerning to have people trading on their government experience and worse, for government officials to be thinking about their future private sector employment while making decisions that should be solely guided by the public interest,’ Open Secrets Senior researcher Dan Auble told the Daily Mail.