When Vanity Fair published close-up photos of President Donald Trump’s core advisers at the end of 2025, the group included five staffers alongside the vice president and secretary of state. Now two of those five aides are gone from the West Wing, turnover that’s reshaping the management of a deeply personal presidency.Two more advisers, each of whom holds the president’s trust, are also leaving the White House within weeks. The trend is familiar to many presidents heading into their final two years in office, but the stakes of a shrinking inner circle may be higher for Trump because of the ecosystem that’s defined his second term: Only a handful of advisers have direct, frequent access to him.That’s by design, after a chaotic revolving door of first-term administration departures that ingrained Trump’s intense focus on loyalty. As one former administration official said, the aides who remain in the White House “want to keep things tight and in the family.”A small family, however, means that the president is facing a tough midterm election with record-low approval ratings, a flurry of distracting personnel dramas, a trade war to the north, and an unresolved war in the Middle East — all with a tinier group of people in the building whom he truly trusts. And the absence of even one gatekeeper risks exposing Trump to the influence of figures with their own ideas for his agenda.The list of departures is topped by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and deputy chief of staff James Blair, who departed in April. But it includes critical Trump advisers who are photographed more rarely: James Braid, director of legislative affairs, is departing next month; David Warrington is also about to step down as White House counsel.Inner circle members still at his side include chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and communications director Steven Cheung.As power consolidates among the remaining players, one administration official familiar with the scenario said, “the people that have been with POTUS the longest will benefit.”Semafor spoke with more than a half-dozen current and former Trump officials, as well as people close to the White House, about the power structure that surrounds Trump. Many around him contend that things won’t shift much, because the president can still pick up the phone to reach his departed confidants.Leavitt and Blair, for example, aren’t going far; they will be advisers to the president’s outside political operation. One White House official described a “pretty large” group of aides in contact with him, including people who report to senior leaders.Others, like the first administration official, argued that Trump’s reality is one of shaky object permanence.“Once the president has not seen someone for a while, especially if they’re not people he has a longstanding relationship with,” the official said, “he’s not really going to be hungry to call them.”Inside the White House, Wiles remains the center of gravity and a critical player in resolving crises of all sizes. But even her awareness can’t be constant, as shown by a scene that played out just this summer.When Wiles left the capital for her daughter’s wedding on one late June weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin saw an opportunity. Mullin, with Wiles and other top aides away, pitched Trump directly on his preferred choice to take the politically volatile post of Immigration and Customs Enforcement director: Lance Schroyer, formerly the head of the security detail at Mullin’s Oklahoma home.Trump made the pick official on Truth Social that very same weekend — a decision that surprised most others close to him, several sources told Semafor.A source familiar with the situation said that Trump makes his own decisions about nominees and hears from various advisers on the subject.“This movement is bigger than any one staff member, and the President’s mission to make America greater than ever before will continue unabated,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement.