Donald Trump used a photo op at the White House with US attorneys last week to rage against those he doesn’t think aren’t being effective in pushing his agenda through the judiciary branch of government.
The president called his attorneys weak, said he felt betrayed and accused them of not moving fast enough to prosecute his political enemies, people familiar with the exchange told the Wall Street Journal.
Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced to Trump dozens of US attorneys gathered at the White House during the ceremonial photoshoot on Thursday.
Trump then criticized them, according to the people familiar, and accused the prosecutors of being ineffective and making it harder for Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to do their jobs at the Department of Justice.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment on Trump’s reported berating of his attorneys.
It appears the ire is his way to redirect the heat off Bondi – even as he privately complains about his AG.
Trump, according to the Journal, has been furious over Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the fact that prosecutions – like of former FBI Director James Comey and New York AG Letitia James – have not gone to plan.
The president also agreed with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ assessment to Vanity Fair that Bondi ‘whiffed’ the Epstein files review, the Monday report notes.
President Donald Trump raged against his US attorneys during a ceremonial photo shoot at the White House on Thursday, January 8, 2026
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro posted an image to Instagram of dozens of US attorneys from across the country waiting at the White House to take a picture with President Donald Trump
A Wall Street Journal report says that Trump criticized the group and accused the prosecutors of being ineffective and making it harder for Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to do their jobs at the Department of Justice
Among his grievances at Thursday’s meeting, the sources claim, was the DOJ’s failure to bring a mortgage fraud case against California Senator Adam Schiff, one of Trump’s most prominent adversaries.
The people claim that Trump criticized prosecutors out by name, but the report didn’t list who specifically got a callout.
The fiery White House exchange last week with his US attorneys came the day before federal prosecutors sent grand jury subpoenas to the Federal Reserve on Friday regarding the central bank’s building renovation project.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has remained at odds with the president since he retook office, claimed in a video statement Sunday that the probe is politically motivated.
Asked about Powell on Tuesday, Trump told reporters: ‘Well, he’s billions of dollars over budget. So, he either is incompetent, or he is crooked. I don’t know what he is, but he certainly doesn’t do a very good job.’
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, who was at Thursday’s photo op, said Monday that the subpoenas was in response to the Fed refusing to provide answers to her office’s formal requests.
‘None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach,’ Pirro wrote in her post. ‘This office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more and nothing less.’
US Attorney for the Eastern Distrcit of Virginia Lindsey Halligan was at the photo op. She runs the office for the district where Trump is mad cases aren’t progressing against his political enemies James Comey and Letitia James
Trump has hand selected several prosecutors to place in the most consequential jurisdictions in the US – including Pirro in Washington, DC and former beauty queen Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Still the president has not been successful in putting in place all of his preferred prosecutors.
Like in New Jersey where Trump has been unable to force through former Counselor to the President Alina Habba to be permanent attorney in the District of New Jersey after her interim position expired.
Now, Habba serves as Bondi’s Senior Advisor for US Attorneys.
