President Donald Trump’s director of legislative affairs is expected to depart the White House in the coming weeks, a Trump administration official told CNN.
James Braid has served as the president’s top liaison between the West Wing and Capitol Hill throughout Trump’s second term. His plans to leave the role less than three months before the midterm elections could complicate any final legislating the White House has planned.
The official told CNN Braid is expected to take on a new role in the private sector.
Braid has been crucial to the White House’s lobbying efforts in Congress, specifically in wrangling lawmakers to get behind Trump’s more controversial legislative agenda items.
Braid, 35, had worked closely with then-Senator JD Vance before he was selected as Trump’s vice president. His strong ties to Capitol Hill are widely credited by White House officials as helping Trump notch his congressional wins, such as passing the president’s sweeping “one big beautiful bill” of tax cuts.
