Trump's chief of staff bans international travel for Cabinet members unless approved by the White House: report

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Thursday 23 April 2026 14:17 EDT


President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is limiting the amount of overseas travel that Cabinet members can take heading into the midterms, according to insiders. Wiles reportedly told staff in February that they should only be leaving the country when absolutely necessary, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting who spoke to Politico.

The changes come ahead of what some — including Trump himself — predict will be a brutal midterm year for Republicans. Early in Trump's second term, his Cabinet officials were taking regular trips abroad. Now, it seems, the "America First" president wants to keep his Cabinet actually in America. Two of the insiders told the outlet that all Cabinet-level international travel has to be cleared by Wiles.

“All trips are run through Cabinet Affairs. The international ones are on a case-by-case basis, but they definitely want you to focus on domestic travel,” one of the sources told Politico. There's been some pushback to the new travel policy.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement that foreign travel is important to the work the federal agencies undertake. The agency noted that Trump and his trade officials “have traveled the world to successfully negotiate over two dozen trade deals, expanding unprecedented market access for American farmers and ranchers.”

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-cabinet-international-travel-b2963732.html

[pwb]

1. An unelected person telling Senate approved Cabinet what to do?

That rubs the wrong way with me. Trump yeah, but her?

[Boo1]

14. Not unusual

A Presidents Chief of Staff is generally the 2nd most powerful person in Washington.

[dem4decades]

2. she wants them close by so they can be fired. Is she the one running the country?

[pwb]

3. She is on loan from Netanyahu.

Keeping things flowing.

[TBF]

10. I think she & Miller are doing a lot behind the scenes.

I don't trust her at all - I think that interview with Vanity Fair was intentional cover (knowing what she is doing behind the scenes). But we will remember. Trump may not be able to be tried for war crimes, but she and Miller, Hegseth, etc - they all should be held accountable.

[vapor2]

23. I don't either, just think she would be doing more to reign in the monster

[biophile]

4. Afraid they will be arrested by a foreign government for violating international laws?

[BattleRow]

12. Or Maduro style "apprehension."

[Kahuna]

22. BINGOIIII nt

[not fooled]

5. Why?

Limit embarrassing photos of Cabinet members living the high life on junkets abroad? Keep them closer for easier firing? Easier to keep their noses to the grindstone destroying America? Ensure maximum attendance to praise Dear Leader at Cabinet meetings?

[fujiyamasan]

6. This is political theater

Make it look like republicans are “hard at work at home”. They want to avoid Cancun Cruz type photos I guess.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. "They want to avoid Cancun Cruz type photos I guess."

It's WAY too late for that. Social media has had a field day with Noem, Patel, Hegseth, Bovino, and even Vance!

[COL Mustard]

18. I wonder if this applies to business travel only...

Or does it include personal travel as well?

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Well I think the suggestion has to do with travel using government resources and vouchering

because they have apparently been using that for personal travel too. So there is a need to verify the purpose and intent.

The fiasco of Noem and Lewandowski and planes, is a perfect example.

[COL Mustard]

20. I think it's probably both an optics and a security measure.

Don't want Secretary X to be photographed in Tahiti during hurricane season, and also don't want Secretary X to get kidnapped. It's probably not a bad idea to know where Cabinet Secretaries are. Remember when Sec. Austin was MIA for a few days because he'd had prostate surgery and nobody knew?

[BumRushDaShow]

21. For some reason

they have a high tolerance for the antics and ridiculous optics of this administration - done "for tee vee". But it's possible Wiles is thinking ahead should Democrats retake the House and start engaging in actual oversight of the use (and misuse) of funds, and that would result in endless negative press.

(ETA - Kegsbreath was MIA for awhile and even I was posting about needing "proof of life" regarding his whereabouts. Same with Keystone Kash!)

[vapor2]

24. But Patel was supposedly on business. lmao

Looking for Nancy Guthrie at the Olympics

[Scully]

13. My mind went a different direction...

... as in, what do they know that they aren't saying? What is going to be happening soon that would make it difficult for those abroad to travel back home? All kinds of thoughts from relatively innocuous (e.g., all the international flights being cancelled due to fuel shortages) to the decidedly not innocuous (e.g., dumbass in chief plans to launch a nuke). Maybe I just have a vivid imagination for catastrophe, but I don't trust this.

[fujiyamasan]

16. With this gang you never know...

[pat_k]

7. Wish some nation would put the cuffs on Trump, Hegseth, Vance, and Rubio for crimes against humanity.

The 1949 Geneva Conventions require any high contracting party to search for persons alleged to have committed grave breaches and bring them, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts or hand them over to another party for trial.

Yeah, I know sitting leaders are generally considered off limits, but perhaps now is the time to test that.

And if I were in this criminal regime, I wouldn't be keen on travel for fear some party to the conventions could decide they are all accessories and exercise universal jurisdiction.

[Prairie Gates]

9. Good Lord

Usually, when somebody gets to that level, they know how to behave and the CoS doesn't have to ride herd on ordinary course of business type things.

What a clown car.

[lonely bird]

11. Better yet

Let them go and don’t let them back in.

[GenThePerservering]

15. The agency noted that Trump and his trade officials

“have traveled the world to successfully negotiate over two dozen trade deals, expanding unprecedented market access for American farmers and ranchers.”

Sorry - what?

[Marcuse]

17. ...and his sons and son in law.