Full List of Ex-Trump Officials Not Voting For Him in 2024

Donald Trump is on a crash course for a high-stakes White House rematch with President Joe Biden in this November’s election, with both individuals passing their respective delegate thresholds earlier this month in what was a swift primary season.

As both men go full bore into campaign mode, Trump is doing so without support from numerous former officials in his White House, including some who have decided not to endorse him even as the Republican nominee, and others openly declaring they will not vote for him and going as far to even encourage against his reelection.

Newsweek has compiled a list of some of the most-notable figures from the Republican’s first term in office who are refusing to support his 2024 presidential bid.

“None of these people are relevant or have any influence. That’s why President Trump crushed the primary and is decimating Crooked Joe Biden in battleground polls,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung previously told Newsweek in an email.

Mike Pence

Earlier this month, Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president during his time in the White House, said he could not back him for a second presidential term “in good conscience.”

During a Fox News interview on March 15, Pence said: “It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year. During my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues.

“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” Pence added.

The former VP, however, neglected to say who he will ultimately vote for but was clear in relaying that he would never vote for Biden.

“I’m going to keep my vote to myself,” Pence said.

Mark Esper

Mark Esper, who served as Trump’s U.S. secretary of defense between July 2019 and November 2020, told CNN last July that Trump is not “fit for office because he puts himself first, and I think anybody running for office should put the country first.”

His disavowing of Trump has escalated in the past nine months. On Friday’s episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Esper was a panelist and made it clear that he will not vote for Trump—saying that the first year of a second Trump term will emulate the last year of Trump’s first term, in terms of fresh officials who with them will bring “craziness” and loyalty towards Trump and not the U.S. Constitution.

“I said that I believe that [Trump’s] a threat to democracy and we should be very mindful of that,” Esper said.

When asked by Maher if that means he will vote for Biden, Esper said it remains somewhat of a possibility based on what happens between now and then.

“There’s no way I’ll vote for Trump, but every day that Trump does something crazy, the door to voting for Biden opens a little bit more, and that’s where I’m at,” Esper said.

A spokesperson for Esper referred Newsweek to Esper’s on-air comments and declined to comment further.

John Bolton

John Bolton served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before working under Trump as U.S. national security adviser from April 2018 until September 2019.

Bolton has been routine in expressing an uneasiness about a second Trump term, regularly criticizing his former boss and the impact he has had on the Republican Party and conservative principles.

In January, he told Newsweek that he plans to do the same thing he did in the 2020 election: write in a candidate not on the ballot. He also doesn’t believe Trump’s legacy will sustain in his own party.

“I didn’t vote for either one of them,” Bolton said. “I wrote in the name of a conservative Republican in Maryland, where I live, and I’ll probably do the same. It’s going to be a very trying, difficult and, I think, damaging period for America over the next four years—whichever one of them is reelected.”

Cassidy Hutchinson

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who worked as assistant to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows before becoming a whistleblower and testifying before a congressional committee about January 6, has claimed a second Trump term could threaten American democracy.

She told ABC News in December that the 2024 election “is a fundamental election to continue to safeguard our institutions and our constitutional republic.”

While saying she would note vote for Trump, she also did not commit to voting for Biden. However, she encouraged “everybody” to vote for Biden “if they want our democracy to survive.”

Anthony Scaramucci

Anthony Scaramucci served as Trump’s White House director of communications for 10 days between July 21-31, 2017.

He said in January on CNN that he would “100 percent” be voting for Biden in November as he views Trump as a threat to American democracy.

Referring to the presumptive Republican nominee, Scaramucci added: “This really is going to be a battle for the democracy, this one. He’s going to expand executive power. He’s going to make things rougher for people. He has already said he’s going after his adversaries using the Department of Justice.

“When someone’s telling you they’re going to flex and be a dictator on day one and go after their adversaries, this is against the 200-plus-year experiment of America,” Scaramucci said.

Alyssa Farah Griffin

Between April and December 2020, Alyssa Farah Griffin worked as White House director of strategic communications and assistant to the president.

During an appearance on ABC’s The View, which she co-hosts, Griffin said she “teared up” when she saw Pence had refused to endorse Trump for a second term.

Addressing her co-host, Griffin added: “The reason that I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump this year also has to do with the fact that he is walking away.

“Not just from keeping faith with the constitution on that day, but also, Margaret, with a commitment to fiscal responsibility, a commitment to the sanctity of life, a commitment to American leadership in the world.”

It remains unclear whether she would vote for Biden. Prior to and during the crux of the GOP primary season, Griffin continually endorsed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as a reasonable alternative to Trump for Republicans.

Haley was the last Republican challenger in the field before bowing out of the race in early March after winning just one state against the ex-president.

Jenna Ellis

Jenna Ellis, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, supported Trump in 2020 but hitched onto Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 campaign for the Republican nomination. DeSantis never won a state during the GOP primaries and dropped out before Nikki Haley.

In October, Ellis became the fourth defendant to enter into a plea deal in relation to criminal charges in Georgia related to the state’s electoral results in 2020. Trump also faces charges in the state.

In a radio interview in September 2023, Ellis said that she has “great love and respect” for Trump on a personal level but “simply can’t support him for elected office again.”

She said that she has distanced herself “because of that frankly malignant, narcissistic tendency to say that he’s never done anything wrong, and the total idolatry I’m seeing from some of the supporters that are unwilling to put the Constitution and the country and the conservative principles above their love for a star is really troubling.”

Michael Cohen

Donald Trump’s former “fixer” Michael Cohen has indicated that he would vote for Biden in 2024.

Cohen, a central figure in the hush money criminal case in Manhattan that is slated to begin in April, has called Trump “the single greatest threat to democracy.”

Bill Barr

Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, resigned from his position after the 2020 election due to fraud claims he viewed as baseless and without merit.

He told Fox News in December that he doesn’t believe in Trump as someone who can move the country forward. However, he told NBC News last July that not endorsing Trump does not equate to a vote for Biden, adding, “I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it.”

James Mattis

James ‘Jim’ Mattis, a retired four-star general nicknamed ‘Mad Dog,’ served as Trump’s secretary of defense from January 2017-January 2019.

In a statement provided to Politico following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Mattis said Trump “will deservedly be left a man without a country.”

Referring to the then-president, Mattis added: “His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

Mattis pointedly has not endorsed Trump as he runs for a second term in the White House.

John Kelly

Between July 2017-January 2019, John Kelly, a former Marine Corps general, served as Trump’s White House chief of staff.

Kelly told CNN in October 2023 that Trump “has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.

“A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators,” Kelly said. “A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”

Asked about the prospect of a second Trump White House term, Kelly added: “God help us.”

Mark Milley

Mark Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff between October 2019 and September 2023. During his retirement speech, Milley said Trump was a “wannabe dictator.”

He added: “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America—and we’re willing to die to protect it.”