A Trump administration official has offered an unusual explanation for why President Donald Trump's inner circle keeps shrinking: what officials described as the president's "shaky object permanence," a cognitive skill normally associated with infants.

White House correspondent Shelby Talcott reported Monday that Semafor interviewed more than a half-dozen current and former Trump officials about the power structure surrounding the president. Their accounts describe a consolidation of influence driven by proximity and longevity rather than seniority or title.

Of the five aides pictured as Trump's core advisers at the end of 2025, two are already gone, and two more who retain the president's trust are set to leave within weeks, Talcott reported. Staffing stability at the top of the White House matters beyond personnel: chiefs of staff, counsel, and legislative affairs directors anchor the flow of paper to the president, negotiate with Congress, and manage legal risk for the executive branch, so turnover in those roles can affect how quickly an administration executes its agenda.

Some officials, Talcott wrote, "argued that Trump's reality is one of shaky object permanence." As one official put it: "Once the president has not seen someone for a while, especially if they're not people he has a longstanding relationship with, he's not really going to be hungry to call them."

According to Semafor, the official attached a single condition to that judgment: what matters is the length of the relationship, not the seniority of the aide. That distinction carries weight because, as Talcott reported, "only a handful of advisers have direct, frequent access to him."

The departures have accelerated. Eight White House aides announced their exits during this summer alone, Semafor reported, including Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair. Leavitt said she is leaving to focus on her small children. Legislative affairs director James Braid departs next month, and White House counsel David Warrington is about to step down, according to Semafor.

"[T]he people that have been with POTUS the longest will benefit," the administration official said of the consolidation now underway.

Mental health experts note that object permanence is a key developmental milestone that babies reach in their first months and that it becomes a building block for healthy adulthood. "If you've ever played peekaboo with your little one, you've helped them work on object permanence," Kendall K. Morgan wrote in a WebMD explainer reviewed by Dr. Renee A. Alli. "Your baby is learning that people and objects exist even when they can't see or hear them."

"Understanding that people and items still exist even when they aren't in view is an important concept that your baby will learn during their first year of life," Morgan added.

Writing in Psychology Today, Imi Lo observed that object permanence is crucial for developing object constancy, which allows an adult to maintain a bond across distance and conflict. "Without object constancy, one tends to relate to others as 'parts,' rather than 'whole,'" Lo wrote. "They may experience relationships as unreliable, vulnerable, and heavily dependent on the mood of the moment. There seems to be no continuity in the way they view their partner—it shifts moment to moment and is either good or bad." Neither source addresses the president specifically; the officials' characterization is their own account of how the White House operates.

Talcott reported that Trump's small circle has a tight roster "by design, after a chaotic revolving door of first-term administration departures that ingrained Trump's intense focus on loyalty." High turnover among senior staff was a defining feature of Trump's first term as well; the Brookings Institution tracked record-setting acting officials and departures across his first four years.

The risks of that design became visible in late June, when chief of staff Susie Wiles left the capital for her daughter's wedding, according to Semafor. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin used the opening to pitch Trump directly on his preferred candidate to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"You've begun to see a deterioration of the tight ship that was run in the first year," one person close to the White House said. "A lot of people are f— obese now, from the power and from the influence," that person added.

The impact of Trump's management style extends well beyond the West Wing. According to the Partnership for Public Service, 27 Senate-confirmed officials left Cabinet departments during the administration's first 18 months—more than double the 11 who had left by the same point in Trump's first term.

Semafor reported that Trump now faces a tough midterm election with record-low approval ratings, a trade war to the north, and an unresolved war in the Middle East—with a smaller group of people he trusts. How the remaining circle distributes responsibilities as the departures take effect will shape the administration's posture heading into the midterms.

"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.

Sources: Semafor, WebMD, Psychology Today, Partnership for Public Service