White House legislative liaison's exit comes ahead of tricky pre-midterms session

WASHINGTON — James Braid, President Donald Trump’s point man on Capitol Hill, will soon leave that post ahead of a packed September congressional session and just over two months before voters will decide which party controls the House and Senate.

A White House official on Thursday confirmed the legislative affairs director’s exit will come later this month and credited him with helping Trump lock in several legislative wins, end a pair of government shutdowns and beat back lawmakers’ challenges to the president’s war powers. Trump’s social media account later posted a message echoing those sentiments, thanking Braid for his work and stating he would formally depart “in September.” The president, however, did not name a replacement.

Braid is expected to move to the private sector.

One Republican source with ties to the White House, granted anonymity to be candid, said the timing makes sense for Braid.

“Congress isn’t going to do anything from now until November. This gives you runway in the private sector,” the source said. “That’s aside from the fact the GOP may not control the House for the next two years.”

Also a veteran of the first Trump administration, Braid became a fixture on Capitol Hill as the president’s team worked to secure votes for Republicans’ 2025 budget reconciliation bill known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

Braid notably met with congressional leaders and sometimes-skeptical lawmakers over Trump’s nominees, ending the longest-ever government shutdown last year and a second budget reconciliation measure that funded the White House’s immigration program for several years.

Braid will depart the White House just as the House is due back in town after an August recess. That means Trump will need a new legislative affairs chief to steer through the House a Senate-passed stopgap funding measure that contains billions for White House priorities. His successor also must deal with Trump’s desire to torch the Senate’s filibuster and pass at least part of his prized GOP-written voter ID and elections overhaul bill known as the “SAVE America Act.”

“President Trump’s agenda isn’t going to slow down,” Aaron Cutler, a former House Republican leadership aide, said.

“There is staff turnover in every administration at this point — Democrat or Republican. And there are people lining up to serve in this White House,” he said Thursday. “I expect the September session to be pretty chaotic — and possibly short, as many members want to be home campaigning.”

Whoever steps into the role will be tasked with championing the president’s priorities amid “a lot of pressure on leadership to give back days — plus Labor Day parades, first days of school and other religious holidays,” Cutler added. “Then, a lame-duck [session] post-midterm election is always unpredictable.”

Should Democrats wrestle control of one or both chambers, the next top White House congressional liaison would need to work with Democratic leaders — at least on must-pass measures like government spending bills and the annual Pentagon policy measure.

But first will come the pre-midterms fall legislative session, which always looked tricky for the White House and congressional Republican leaders.

“Given the tremendous amount of work to be done before the end of the 119th Congress, this has to be a setback to the president’s agenda,” G. William Hoagland, a former aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Thursday. “Whomever replaces [Braid] will have to hit the ground running fast.

“My guess, overall, is this is not good for the president’s agenda and will shift more direction to the members themselves this fall to get the work done,” he added.

A White House spokesperson said it was not yet certain when Trump intends to name a new legislative affairs director, nor just when Braid’s last day would be.

Unlike Trump 1.0, the second term has not featured a revolving door of senior West Wing aides and Cabinet officials. Republican sources with ties to the administration have touted its more organized operation, crediting that to the management of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and former Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair.

Still, Trump announced last week that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, one of his closest advisers, would be departing this month. Blair took what Trump described earlier this year as a leave of absence to focus on November’s midterm elections.

A veteran of the first Trump administration as a legislative affairs aide in the White House Office of Management and Budget, Braid also worked for the House Freedom Caucus and was a staffer for then-Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and now-Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., when he served in the House. His last Hill job before joining the second Trump administration was as a senior aide to then-Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.

That means when Braid exits the West Wing, so, too, goes his institutional knowledge about Congress and its many personalities.

Trump has long shrugged off senior staff and Cabinet departures as routine.

“Everyone leaves,” he said in July 2018 when asked about rumors that then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was mulling a departure. (Sanders ultimately stuck around until June 2019.)

“At a certain point everyone sort of leaves, you have to leave,” he told Fox News back then about subordinates leaving. “I’m sort of just standing like a ship, just keep going, bing, bing.”