significant people who have resigned government positions, or emigrated to move to safer countries

resignations and dismissals

While there were thousands of resignations by federal employees due to the deferred resignation program and other firings, there were a handful of resignations made that especially caught the public eye, sometimes because an open letter was published about their reasons for stepping down.

• Jan 2025 — 17 inspectors general were fired. (Inspectors general serve as independent watchdogs within federal agencies, tasked with investigating allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse.)
• Jan 2025 — The chair of the NLRB is fired.
• Feb 2025 — Five top members of the military were fired, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
• Feb 2025 — Seven people resigned from the Department of Justice related to pressure to drop charges against NYC mayor Eric Adams.
• Jul 2025 — Maurene Comey is fired, supposedly because she's the daughter of former FBI directory James Comey.
• Aug 2025 — Five top CDC officials were fired or resigned. [1] [2] [3]

TODO: consider these for possible inclusion in the above list:

• Everyone Who’s Resigned From the Trump Administration in Protest | Time (Feb 2025)
• 📖Targeting of political opponents and civil society under the second Trump administration
• 📖US federal agencies targeted by DOGE

emigrations

• Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder, Jason Stanley — three professors who study fascism who decided to move to Canada

General brain drain:

• almost 300 academics applied for the Aix-Marseille University in Frace