All the people Donald Trump has sacked during his time as president

Donald Trump’s sacking of FBI Director James Comey is the latest in a line of high-profile sackings since taking up office.

James Comey – May 9

Comey apparently found out he’d been sacked from his post while giving a speech to agents.

In a letter, Trump said he was following the recommendations of attorney general Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, who criticised his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private emails – something she has since partly blamed on her losing the US election.

Most recently Comey’s focus had turned to investigating whether Russia had interfered with the election. Trump said the sacking was necessary to restore “public trust and confidence” in the FBI.

But critics were quick to compare the president’s actions to those of one of his predecessors, Richard Nixon, during the Watergate cover-up scandal.

Angella Reid – May 5

The White House chief usher was sacked almost a week ago yet the circumstances behind it are a bit of a mystery. Her colleagues, including former chief of staff to the Obamas Tina Tchen, took to Twitter once the news broke.

Hired in 2011, Reid was the first woman to hold the post, which involved overseeing the running of household staff, working closely with the first family, and making sure the entertaining of guests goes smoothly.

Like Comey, her firing appeared to come completely out of the blue.

Preet Bharara – March 11

Bharara was fired as the US attorney for the southern district of New York after refusing Trump’s call to resign.

The Justice Department told 46 prosecutors, nearly all of whom had been appointed by Barack Obama, that they should step down from their posts.

While this can be fairly standard practice for a new administration coming in, it’s sometimes carried out in phases rather than all in one go.

Furthermore, there’s the issue that Trump had reportedly previously told Bharara that he would keep his job.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted at the time linking the firing to the location of his jurisdiction.

Mike Flynn – February 13

The controversial national security adviser – who was dismissed by Obama as head of the Defence Intelligence Agency in 2014 – was forced to resign just three weeks into his new job following allegations that he had mislead VP Mike Pence about his ties with Russia.

Pence, relying on information from Flynn, publicly vouched that the retired army lieutenant general didn’t discuss sanctions with Moscow’s ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

But Flynn later told the White House that sanctions might have come up in the calls.

Sally Yates – January 31

The US attorney general, appointed by Obama, faced the chop at the end of January.

Yates questioned the legality of Trump’s executive order for his infamous travel ban days after his inauguration.

But she paid the price – she was dismissed with a White House statement accusing her of “betraying” the justice department.

Chris Christie – November 19 2016

The New Jersey governor has been a long-term friend of Trump but that proved to be of little use when he was demoted as chairman from Trump’s presidential transition team and replaced by Pence.

Pence then went about fulfilling Trump’s plan to “drain the swamp” of lobbyists from his team which meant aides Christie had personally brought in.

It’s not quite as serious a hit as Yates but a big blow nonetheless for someone who seemed destined for the higher ranks of American politics.